


I'm not scared

by Hopefulbangtan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Bullying, Harry Potter AU, Jungkook is being bullied, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-02-27 08:16:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13244220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopefulbangtan/pseuds/Hopefulbangtan
Summary: Jeon Jungkook had never been good with people. Coming from a powerful wizarding family with a dark past meant that people didn’t really want to be involved with him. He doesn’t really have friends, not even people in his own house like him.That is, until Kim Taehyung- muggleborn Hufflepuff - comes along and literally turns his entire life around.





	1. Chapter 1

The Slytherin common room is bustling with life. Everyone is happy to be reunited with their friends after the long summer break. Best friends mess around with best friends, friends hug friends, acquaintances greet acquaintances, and everyone talks to the strangers- the new kids, first years. 

There is one boy, excluded from the entire mix of life and interaction- Jeon Jungkook. He’s sat in an armchair in front of the fire. And even though he’s in the same room as all this joy- he feels as though he couldn’t be any further away.

This year, he’s really tried. He wore a smile as soon as he sat on the Hogwarts express, trying to look more friendly. He moved to sit in a carriage with some first-years (although there was one third year too)- y’know to make a fresh start- but as soon as he sat down in the empty seat they had disappeared, rushing out as soon as they caught sight of him (he supposes the third year had had a chance to warn them about him).

He didn’t let that get him too low though, he decided that he had to stay positive. He entered the grand hall with a smile and sat down with other second-years on the bench. He barely had time to say hello before they had moved, leaving him in the center of an empty space. He blinked once, twice, and then sighed. He’s used to it, people being scared.

Jungkook doesn’t see his parents often during holidays, they work all over the world. But, this summer was different. They had a holiday together in India. He loved every second. He took so many photos it almost filled an album (which he keeps in his bag).

Feeling downhearted but still so desperate for somebody to appreciate or at least respect him, Jungkook makes a last ditch effort. In India, they went to a muggle souvenir shop. In there they had lucky charms, a small elephant. Jungkook thought they were cute, all coming in all sorts of different colours. So he bought 8. One for himself, then one for each of his roommates in the dormitory.  

The brunette went to the dorm room, small paper bag in his hands. When he got up there, everyone else was getting ready for bed.

“Uh- guys,” Jungkook says quietly, in the door frame. Everyone turns to him, a look of disgust on each of their faces. “I bought- uh- I- I bought you all a present,”

“Throw it away,” One of them says, blond hair spiked up, “I don’t trust you, Jeon. I don’t want anything from you.”

And with that, the boy gets into bed.

“Your auntie killed my uncle. I’m  not disrespecting her existence by accepting gifts from you,” A boy with black hair sneers.

Jungkook’s family were experienced in dark magic, they were horrible people. His great grand-parents, grand-parents, and aunties and uncles all caused havoc in the wizarding world at least once. But not his parents. Both sides of his parent’s family are dark- but neither of his parents have ever hurt a soul. They’re so unlike the rest of the family. So gentle, and kind, and always treated Jungkook right.

But no-one ever talks about the nice Jeons. They only want to focus on the negatives. Barely any people know that Jungkook’s parents send large donations to St. Mungos every year as an apology for what the rest of their family has done to the world. They send Christmas gifts too- these anonymously (they don’t want people to assume they’ll be enchanted and then throw them out).

Another boy, with eyes as dark as the midnight sky, steps forward. Jungkook is happy for a moment, maybe someone is going to take one from him, maybe even thank him! A smile is about to cover Jungkook’s face when the boy stops abruptly. And he spits on Jungkook’s feet.

When Jungkook looks up from his black leather shoes, he sees that everyone is laughing. Everyone is laughing at him.

_Why do I even try? No-one’s ever going to like me. Even the first years have been warned off of me. I want to go home. I don’t want to be here anymore._

Jungkook lowers his head and trudges over to his bed. He scrunches his nose in disgust as he cleans his shoes with tissues. He sighs when he sees that someone poured water into his open trunk while he walked over to the bin. A quick spell dries his clothes but it doesn’t make it any less annoying.

When he climbs into bed that night, everyone around him asleep, he sighs.

Going to sleep isn’t hard, but he gets woken up twice. Once when someone thought it’d be funny to pour water over him, and once more when he sees that someone else has stolen his duvet. God knows where they put it. Jungkook puts on his winter-coat and goes back to bed.

 

The Great Hall is swarming with people. The four tables are lined up and piled with food, there are banners hanging from the ceiling and there are smiles wherever you look. The teacher’s table at the front of the hall is bustling too- teachers who hadn’t managed to see each-other the day before talking and catching up.

Kim Taehyung strides into the hall, yellow and black uniform hanging too big on his frame. He’s on his own, but the wide smile adorning his features shows that he doesn’t mind- not at all. Once he sits down at the Hufflepuff table beside his best friend, his smile only widens.

“Where’ve you been? I waited outside the Hufflepuff common room for you but Hoseok said you already left,” Jimin’s blonde hair is falling into his eyes a little as his eyes focus on his bowl, fishing his cereal with a spoon. His red robes are a little tousled and Taehyung leans forward to neaten him up a bit- Jimin looks at him expectantly.

“I went for a walk,” Taehyung supplies, grabbing some toast and piling it onto his plate.

And it’s true, Taehyung woke up especially early so he could get a nice walk in before his first school day of the academic year started. He loves nature, has since he was a kid. Watching the river flow, or the birds fly, or just sitting in the grass makes him happy. He’s a people person, and would love to have morning walks with a friend, but no-one he knows wakes up early enough.

Oh well

When the headmaster begins his speech about having a good first day, Taehyung finds time to write the days timetable on his hand in pen. Once he does bring out said pen, everyone sat around him stares at him weirdly.

“What is that?” A black haired boy asks quietly, eyes darting from the headmaster to Taehyung as to not get caught talking. When his eyes catch Jimin, a Gryffindor sat at the Hufflepuff table, he pauses for a moment.

“A pen, like-“ Taehyung stops to swipe his tongue across his teeth, doesn’t want the kid to see all the food in his teeth, “It’s the muggle equivalent of a quill and ink,”

The black haired kid raises his eyebrows and looks back to the front. When Taehyung’s stopped writing down the days lessons, he finds Jimin looking at him sceptically.

“Do you have a quill? You know you’re not supposed to use those here,” Jimin says quietly. “Remember, you got into trouble about it last year from Snap,”

Taehyung ducks down and brings his bag onto his lap. He searches through it for a second before bringing out a half empty ink pot. He places it on the table triumphantly and then digs into his bag again. A minute passes and Taehyung pauses, hand faltering where it had been moving in his bag. Slowly, he pulls out a battered quill. It’s stained with spots of ink all the way to the top, it’s bent and the top has split in two.

Jimin sighs, one hand coming to pinch the bridge of his nose. It takes seconds for him to go into his own bag and pull out a brand new quill, white and only slightly curved (as they are supposed to be- not bent at a right angle like Taehyung’s). Small hands pass it to larger ones, and Taehyung smiles.

“Thank you!” He whispers, winking at his best friend.

Jimin just rolls his eyes and puts his bag back down to the floor. He eats his cereal in silence while Taehyung blows kisses at him.

Once breakfast is over, people start to file out to their first lessons of the day. Laughter and cheers erupt as some unlucky first year trips up infront of some fifth years. Taehyung frowns. He doesn’t like that. He really doesn’t like it when people make others feel bad or embarassed, he especially doesn’t like it when people are on their own.

And that’s exactly what that first year is, he’s on his own on the floor, trying to pick up his things. His face is red- just like his robes. Around him, the fifth years are laughing. Taehyung doesn’t even think before he near enough empties his bag into his hands (leaving his quill and the ink, he doesn’t think Jimin will be generous twice).

He weaves through the crowds and when he gets close to the kid, he falls himself. His arms go flying, and so his books do too. They fly around in the air and land haphazardly around the empty space around he and the kid. Taehyung’s fall isn’t as easy –  it takes a few more seconds for him to fall as he slips and trips all over the place.

The hard floor hurts his back, and he opens his eyes and groans.

_The ceiling is pretty today_

When he takes a peek to the side, the kid has all of his books gathered now, and the redness on his cheeks have faded as the older kids are just laughing at Taehyung now- letting the first-year forget his embarrassment. Taehyung winks at him and the younger grins, mouthing a thank you.

The kid scampers off unnoticed and Taehyung sits up fully and starts to gather his books up. He didn’t realise how good his throw was, they’re all over the place.

“Go on, get to lessons. Yeah, I know hes a real idiot, go,” Taehyung hears a voice command, and the laughing fifth years leave, leaving a nice peaceful quiet.

A flash of blue robes picks up his last book and passes It to him. Taehyung smiles. “Thanks Namjoonie-hyung,”

Namjoon rolls his eyes and grabs Taehyung’s bag, which was sitting on the younger’s shoulder. “Why didn’t you have your books in you bag? Unless… you meant to make a fool of yourself,”

Taehyung remembers the little first-year with red cheeks trying to gather his own books earlier. “So smart, hyung. Thought I’d add a little tang to the first day y’know? Don’t want it to go too perfectly,”

Namjoon sighs, exasperated, and holds Taehyung’s bag open so he can dump his books inside. After, he passes the bag to Taehyung and the younger puts it on his shoulder. Just in time for Jimin to get to them, face disapproving.

“Taehyung,” Jimin scolds, knowing full well what and why Taehyung did. Before he can say anything, Taehyung drags him away, waving goodbye to Namjoon.

Once they’re a considerable distance away, nearly at transfiguration (a lesson that gryffindors and hufflepuffs share)  Jimin scolds him properly. He shouts at him for being reckless (‘you could’ve hurt yourself or someone else!’) for acting without thinking (‘you need to think more! Why the hell would you do that?’ Taehyung’s answer to that was easy- ‘to make the kid feel better’) and for being himself really (‘why are you so goddamn extra?’).

Taehyung grins throughout the entire ordeal, and he’s punished for it by Jimin moving to sit somewhere else in class. Taehyung sends him paper aeroplanes of sad faces whenever the professor leaves the room or turns her back (which is surprisingly often, she isn’t very organised for this first lesson of the year).

It starts a bit of a craze, and soon near enough a dozen aeroplanes soar every time that something new is to be written on the board. She does turn around too suddenly on one occasion, and even though Taehyung’s plane hadn’t been caught, he took the blame.

(“What is happening? Who is doing this? Peter was it you?” McGonagall shouted, finger pointing at the strawberry blonde kid in the back.

Yeah, that kid gets into trouble quite a bit. But Taehyung knows he’s trying to have a good year and chances are he wasn’t sending paper around the room like many of them were.

“It was me, professor, sorry. ” Taehyung threw himself to the dogs with no hesitation, and he spotted Jimin shaking his head at him in the corner of his eye. McGonagall just sighed and warned him to not do it again or he’d be in detention.

However, Taehyung is sure that McGonagall knew it wasn’t him, as she sends him a small smile when the class continues. She knows him too well at this point.) 

Once lunchtime comes around, Taehyung is starving. He jogs to the hall with a smile, nearly smacks into about a dozen people, and finally sits down at the Gryffindor table.

“Hi beautiful,” Taehyung grins, and Jimin looks at him tiredly, “Fancy some homework?”

“I have some too if you’re really hungry for it,” Hoseok says, wide smile infectious as he sits across from Jimin. His yellow tie is wonky and he moves to straighten it once he feels eyes on him, “I ran down here, I’m starving. I missed breakfast because I had to finish some homework that was given before the holiday,”

“I didn’t miss breakfast and I was still starving,” Taehyung shrugs, plating up food onto his plate, “Where’s… where’s the rice?”

Hoseok rolls his eyes and leans down the table to pass Taehyung a bowl. It’s not unusual to see other houses sat together when it’s these three. They’re always together. Occasionally, Namjoon (a friend of Taehyung’s- a bond made when Namjoon asked Taehyung about his MP3 player when he was a first year, Taehyung had made a habit of showing Namjoon day to day muggle items) will sit with them too- but he’ll only really come to sit with them if they ask him to.

Jungkook enters the great hall alone, as always. He decides to walk the long way around so he doesn’t have to walk past the particular group of people who he shares a dorm with. There’s one- James? Who Jungkook hopes he can be friends with. This particular kid is in the bed next to Jungkook and hes never said anything to him, so maybe he isn’t like the others. Maybe he’s willing to give Jungkook a chance.

“Sorry,” Jungkook says quietly to a tall ravenclaw, who he can’t get past. “Uh- excuse me, please,”

“Joon!” A blonde haired Hufflepuff shouts out, shoving the Ravenclaw a little to direct his attention to the kid trying to get past him. ‘Joon’ looks down at Jungkook, and he freezes for a moment. “Sorry about him, he’s in a world of his own,”

The boy, the blonde haired Hufflepuff, he isn’t scared or angry at Jungkook. He’s looking at him with a boxy smile and bright eyes. This is the first time someone’s smiled at Jungkook in Hogwarts. But instead of thanking him, maybe introducing himself, he ducks away and heads over to the slytherin table.

“That was Jeon Jungkook,” Namjoon says quietly, watching him go.

“He’s cute,” Taehyung says softly, eyes also following the brunette.

“That was Jeon Jungkook,” Namjoon repeats, voice stern. Taehyung hums, “Nephew of Alena Jeon, grandson of Minsu Jeon,”

“Yeah, I know who the Jeons are Namjoon,” Taehyung says nonchalantly, “So what? Don’t judge a book by its cover- or rather, don’t judge a book by its author.”

Namjoon goes back to his table, confused. Taehyung is some kid.

Jungkook sits on his own a little bewildered, he didn’t even try to reach out to that guy. But, that guy reached over to him. His friend, the tall Ravenclaw, didn’t look too pleased to see him though. Jungkook knows that the Hufflepuff kid probably didn’t know who he was, but know he’ll have been filled in and the next time Jungkook sees him he’ll be wearing a sneer instead of a smile.

A blonde boy sits next to Jungkook with his friend, the two of them taking up so much space that Jungkook backs down the bench a little bit to give them more space. Jungkook perks up, if they’re sat next to him then they aren’t scared of him. A small smile tugs on his lips, this is his chance to make a friend- two friends!

“Hi,” Jungkook says quietly, and the blonde haired boy whips around and locks eyes with him. There’s a moment of silence before the kid recoils, grabbing his friend’s arm. Jungkook’s smile falters. “I’m- I’m not dangerous!”

The words mean nothing, because the two boys stand up and move away from him. Jungkook watches them leave throat burning. The only space left on the bench is near him, and when the people from his dorm wander past and see him, they move to the very bottom of the table to sit with the first years. His heart sinks in his chest.

Jungkook doesn’t eat any dinner. He sits in silence for 10 minutes, tries to have a bite of some bread and butter (then nearly spits it out, everything tastes bland). Deciding that he isn’t going to try again, he stands up. He looks to the door, and to the group of people from his dorm.

Going to the nearby door would mean that he has to walk past them. And Jungkook doesn’t think he can bear their judgemental stares again tonight. So, he makes plans to go to the door he came through. He goes the long way around, eyes planted to the floor.

When he walks past the blonde Hufflepuff, he misses the sad smile that the elder shoots him. Once he’s out of earshot, Taehyung speaks.

“He was sat on his own,” He says softly, watching the brunette leave the hall, “And he literally only had a bite to eat,”

Jimin and Hoseok ignore him, too engrossed in their own conversation to see Taehyung looking like a kicked puppy.

Jungkook storms to the common room, bag smacking against his side. His voice shakes when he says the password, but the painting makes no comment. He’s scared of him too.

Jungkook sits down on the armchair of the common room and gets out his defence against the dark arts book. As he reads through it, the cover obscured by a pillow, people gradually start to return. They ignore him, and he doesn’t pay them any mind either, eyes flying over words.

He doesn’t get it. As ashamed as it makes him, he can’t do defence against the dark arts. He doesn’t understand it. But it isn’t like he can ask for extra help- it isn’t like he has any friends, his teacher hates him, plus everyone would laugh at him- a Jeon who can’t do defence against the dark arts.

When the room gets too full, he packs away his book and goes upto the dorm. He sits on his bed and sighs, it’s wet. A spell later it’s dry and he’s left to get changed into his pyjamas. When he delves into his bag, he sees the bag of the small elephants. He looks around, James is here.

“Hi,” Jungkook says, elephant obscured in his hands. When he gets no response, he tries again. Nothing. “James?”

“Don’t fucking talk to me,”

Jungkook nods numbly, heart beating hard in his chest. He puts the gift back in his bag and gets into bed. The sounds of everyone talking aches his heart- why won’t anyone ever talk to him.

Sure enough the noise dies down, until all can be heard is the wind outside and the light snoring of the boys in the dorm.

He cries almost silently into his pillow, hands gripping it hard enough that his knuckles turn white. His chest heaves with shallow breaths as he tries to control his breathing- he doesn’t want to be loud and make someone wake up.

He cries until his chest is burning and his eyes are sore.

Jungkook falls asleep with one hand on his heart.  

He wants the pain to go away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note! Before the story progresses any further id like to mention the ages of each of the characters. I didn’t make them with the right age gaps for the storys sake so-   
> Jimin, Taehyung, Jungkook = second years (Jungkook is still the youngest of all of them, barely born in time to make it into that school year- this will be explained later)   
> Namjoon, Hoseok, Yoongi, Seokjin = third years

“Jeon Jungkook!” The professor shrills, shaking as he walks over to Jungkook. He points at the younger accusingly, “What is all of this about?”

Jungkook really has no idea. One minute he was sat in class copying notes from the board, next minute he’s being dragged to his feet by the fat (and almost bald) defence against the dark arts teacher. Jungkook swallows, scared- he hasn’t done anything.

“Sorry?” Jungkook says in a small voice, keeping his face void of emotion as he doesn’t want everyone to see that he’s upset, worried.

“No talking back! Detention!” The elder bellows, face red enough that it could easily be mistaken for one of the large tomato like fruits he had once encountered in herbology.

“I didn’t-“ Jungkook cuts off his own sentence when the professor starts taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down.

“NO ONE BUT A JEON WOULD DO THIS,” He screams, so loud that even the tough kids sat at the back of the room wince. Jungkook is still confused, his eyes scan around the room until they land on the desk at the front.

A dead rat (an obvious dig at the professor whose rat had died sometime last year- it was such a loss to the man that he took a month off work for mourning). There are sniggers behind Jungkook, and he has no doubt that the ones laughing are those who planted the actual rat there.

And, of course, Jungkook got the blame.

Because that’s all he’s good for, being ignored, spat on, and blamed for things.

When class is dismissed, Jungkook rushes to leave first. He does not want to risk being on his own with the professor for even a moment. He’s always picked on Jungkook, ever since he started at Hogwarts that guy just had it out for him. On his first day, at the sorting ceremony, the teacher had glared at him as he queued to be sorted. Then when he was sat at the table, he caught him staring at him multiple times- dark and dead eyes boring into his head.

The bag weighing down on Jungkook’s shoulder is a reminder that he has homework, a lot of it. It’s only his fourth day back, yet the work given has been relentless. For the first time in a while, Jungkook is worried about not getting all of his work ready on time.

Last year, at the start, he had been very motivated to do well and prove everyone wrong who’d doubted him and judged him before they knew anything. But as he got more and more unfavourable comments, and as people continued to treat him like shit even when he did nothing, he lost his drive to do well. He spent the last half of the previous year not giving a fuck, he didn’t do work if he didn’t have time, he was sloppy handing in homework. He didn’t see why he should do well when, no matter what, people were going to treat him the same whether he got an A or a D.

But this year, he’s going to do well. He wants to make his parents even prouder. Because they’re worried for him. They know he doesn’t have any friends, and they step around the topic lightly. Jungkook can’t forget the pity on their faces every morning of the summer holidays when they saw that he got no letters from friends.

His dad offered to take him to a quidditch match, but Jungkook refused (‘It’s not safe for a Jeon to go to places like that, dad. It’s okay.’). Even Jungkook hates how fast he’s had to grow up in the cruel world. He has two wishes- make friends, and go to a quidditch world cup- unfortunately, either are an option with his family name tagging him, setting him aside from everyone else.

The library is deserted, and Jungkook is glad. Because he came in yesterday and someone poured water over his homework, so he had to start over. No doubt someone from his dorm, they seem to be pouring water on him a lot this year- he can see why, its easy to do and its really inconvenient (especially to parchment, or to his pillow in the middle of the night).

He sweeps through the library, black and green robes swishing, until he gets to a table in the corner, next to a window. He likes it here, it’s a bit hidden, which means that he doesn’t have people’s stares on him constantly like usual. They’re not always stares full of hate, they’re full of fear too. Everyone fears the Jeons.

“Hi! Sorry- someone sitting here?” Jungkook hears a deep voice say cheerily, and Jungkook freezes, eyes on the table.

Is- is this person asking to sit with him?

Jungkook shakes his head, eyes still down. Maybe this kid doesn’t realise who he is, best to keep it that way. So, Jungkook keeps his face down, eyes on the empty parchment in front of him.

After a few minutes, the initial shock wears off. He shakily grabs his quill and starts to write, not daring to sneak a glance at the boy sat opposite him- who appears to be copying notes from a battered book.

Jungkook’s heart is racing in his chest, his breaths shallowing. No-one’s ever sat with him In the library before. Even when it’s been overflowing with people, everyone keeps their distance from the Jeon. But, right now, the library is empty. But still, this boy is sat with him.

“I like your eyebrows, do you pluck or wax?” The deep voice makes Jungkook look up, and he’s surprised to see the familiar head of blonde hair and yellow robes. He smiles at Jungkook once he notices he’s looking.

“Sorry?” Jungkook says, confused, one hand reaching to touch his eyebrows. They’re usually not on show- but he had pushed his hair out of his eyes a little when he entered the library. _Plucked or wax? He says he likes them? People like eyebrows?_

“Your eyebrows, what do you do with them, pluck or wax? Oh- or do you thread?” He speaks out, resting his head on his arms.

“I-I don’t do anything with them,” Jungkook says quietly, his eyes dart around when he hears a small bang. He’s learned to be careful, you never know when someone’s going to come up to you and make your day a hundred times shittier.

“Wow, I pluck mine. You’re lucky,” The boy smiles and winks before going back to his work.

Jungkook is left confused.

First of all this guy comes and sits with him (despite an empty library) and then he asks about his eyebrows? This is… weird. Something is definitely up.

Jungkook’s eyes scan around the part of the room that’s visible, he can’t see anyone else waiting to come up to them. And he can’t see this guy going to all this effort to hurt him. No, Jungkook should keep his guard up. This’ll be part of some elaborate plan to make Jungkook feel bad.

His eyes go back down to his book, and Jungkook very cautiously starts on his homework again. He stops a few times, when he hears people getting close. At one point, voices get close enough that he’s extra paranoid and puts his arms over his homework, one way to protect it from any water damage should the risk arise.

Taehyung watches subtly, and it doesn’t take a genius to guess that this kid is being bullied. Honestly? Just the thought of this boy sat in front of him being bullied is enough for his blood to start boiling in his veins.

“I’m Kim Taehyung,” Taehyung holds his hand out, and his little outburst has Jungkook jumping a little in his seat. He looks up, like a deer caught in headlights. Taehyung wiggles the fingers of his outstretched hand.

Jungkook shakes his hand timidly. “J-Jeon Jungkook or, uh- Jungkook Jeon-“

“I’m Korean too! It’s okay. I said my family name first as well- remember,” Taehyung says reassuringly and Jungkook has pink dusting his cheeks. “Oh shit! I said I’d meet Jimin 20 minutes ago! Bye Jungkook- see you later!”

Taehyung hastily packs his bag and waves good bye to Jungkook, nearly tripping up as he walked backwards. Jungkook waves back timidly.

He doesn’t do the rest of his work, stunned by the boy with the box smile and kind eyes. He sits in silence- unsure whether he should be happy or not.

He should be happy because that’s the first conversation he’s had with someone here which hasn’t been full of malice, happy because there is someone out there who doesn’t care about his family name.

But he shouldn’t be happy. Because this is probably some elaborate prank. He’s going to leave the room and there’s going to be streamers, and laughter, and the blonde boy is going to be laughing at him for believing that someone can be nice to him.

That doesn’t happen, surprisingly. But Jungkook must’ve looked a little weird, wincing as he stepped out of the library.

He’s barely 5 steps away from the library before someone is tugging on his shoulder, hard. He’s spun around to meet a stone faced 5th year. He’s in slytherin, Jungkook’s seen him around the common room. Before he even has time to recoil, he’s thrown to the floor.

Punch after punch is landed on his face and jaw. After a couple of minutes, Jungkook manages to push him off with shaking arms. Everyone around him stares, he wasn’t alone- there were at least 6 other slytherins there.

He runs.

He can feel his nose and lip are bleeding, but he doesn’t care. He runs as fast as he can, winding through corridoors until he reaches the boy’s toilets. He takes a deep breath and goes in, sighing in content when he finds it empty. Locking himself in a cubicle, Jungkook tries to make himself as quiet as possible as he struggles to breathe.

In all of his (miserable) time here, he’s never actually been hit like that. There’s been a few punched arms, a few threats, but that kid- he came out of nowhere and pummelled Jungkook.

“Shit,” Jungkook hisses, tears pricking in his eyes at the pain in his face. He scrambles in his pocket for the little hand mirror he keeps there.

His lip is bust, his nose isn’t broken- but it is bleeding pretty badly, and there’s a bruise forming on his left cheek. Jungkook takes in a deep breath, trying to stave away tears. But as he thinks of what happened, how that kid had thrown him around without a second thought- when Jungkook hadn’t even done anything, Jungkook feels himself crumbling.

Tears escape his eyes involuntarily and he whimpers as he tries his hardest not to cry. He holds a wad of tissues to his nose, and he keeps his eyes closed as he tries to calm himself down.

_Why me? Why did he do it to me? My auntie or my grandfather must’ve done something to his family. But still- that wasn’t me! I didn’t do a thing. If so, why didn’t he do this last year? Maybe he was opposed to hitting a first year._

_Is this how it’s always going to be? Am I going to have to live my entire life in fear of someone beating me up like this. I can’t fight back- I’m trying to have a good year. I don’t want my parents to be called in because I got into a fight. They’d be so upset._

After half an hour, Jungkook’s cleaned himself up pretty well. But there was nothing he could do to hide the split in his lip, or the bruise on his cheek. He exits the toilet stall and makes his way to the great hall for dinner, stomach yelling at him to get something to eat.

He can feel eyes on him, but he keeps his head down. When he hears sniggers, he wants to scream. He wants to scream and shout that he doesn’t deserve it, that he’s done nothing wrong. But he stays quiet, shuffling through crowds and trying not to wince at bits of cool air making it to the cut on his lip.

Jungkook sits in his usual spot at the table and he looks at the food in front of him. Suddenly, he doesn’t feel so hungry anymore. When he looks up, Taehyung is in his line of vision. He’s sat at the ravenclaw table with the tall boy from the other day- there’s a Gryffindor and another Hufflepuff too. They look so happy.

Jungkook grabs a piece of bread and takes a bite, wincing as his lip aches. When he looks up again, he sees that they’ve been joined by another Hufflepuff- a tall broad shouldered boy who, god damn, he’s really handsome. The girls sitting nearby giggle, but the before mentioned has all of his attention on his friends.

Taehyung looks up, chicken in hand, and he makes eye contact with Jungkook. His smile falls completely as his eyes roam over Jungkook’s injuries. Jungkook pretends not to notice, looking down at the table.

_Taehyung looked so worried, worried about me. No-one’s ever worried about me._

Jungkook puts down his half eaten bread and stands up, looking down. He feels too sick to eat. As quick as he enters, he leaves. Just as he gets out of the door, he feels someone grab his sleeve.

Jungkook, on instinct, lets out a shout and backs away, which ends up with him falling on his ass. When he looks up, he sees that its just Taehyung, eyes soft and hand outstretched. Jungkook takes it and stands up. Taehyung looks at him, eyes full of pity. But before he can say anything, Jungkook shrugs away from him, and takes off back to the common room.

Taehyung stares at him, defeated. _Someone beat him up. And fuck, does it look sore._

_That’s not fair, that’s really not fair._

When he shrinks back into his seat, eyes are on him. Hoseok frowns but he doesn’t say anything.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” Taehyung asks Hoseok, and the elder _giggles._

“Boyfriend? Nooooo, he isn’t my-“ Hoseok starts then clears his throat, “Yoongi never comes to dinner, he always sneaks food from the house elves in the kitchen doesn’t he.”

Taehyung nods, staring down at his unfinished chicken with a stomach full with guilt.

“Where can I find him?” Taehyung asks, already putting his bag onto his shoulder.

“Slytherin common room? Or- he might be at the astronomy tower, oh or he could be-“

Before he can finish his sentence, Min Yoongi appears from (what seems like thin air) and steals a piece of chicken straight from Jin’s grasp. The elder huffs angrily.

“Yah!” He starts, arms flying up for a second, “Min Yoongi there is chicken right there! Right there for you to take! It isn’t to be taken out of my hands!”

Taehyung whips his head around to look at his hyung who’s sat opposite him all of a sudden.

“Hyung, can you please do me a favour?” Taehyung says, batting his eyelashes. Yoongi sighs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thankyou for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!! Hopefully updates will be regular (I'm thinking one every couple days).  
> Please follow me on twitter!! I'd LOVE to make friends with some fans of harry potter and BTS- please send me a DM or tweet me! My twitter username is @bts_yngi <3


	3. Chapter 3

Min Yoongi hasn’t really had much social interaction since school started again.

He spent most of his summer holiday producing music, since he can’t really do it at school. Hours and hours he locked himself in his bedroom, laptop open, and music filling his ears.

This, of course, means that he didn’t do any homework. And so he has had to coop himself up in the library and his dorm room to try and catch up. And so, he hasn’t really seen his friends.

It isn’t unusual, he likes to be alone sometimes. He isn’t motivated to do homework until the night before its due, so he’s learned that, if he needs to do work, he can just use his lunchtimes to get stuff done and just get food from the kitchen. And on the evenings when he’s free, he likes to go up to the astronomy tower. It’s there that he feels the most peaceful, and it helps his hand dance across the pages of his notebook as he gets ideas for song lyrics.          

And even though he had planned to go to the astronomy tower tonight, Kim Taehyung asked him a favour. And Kim Taehyung had done Yoongi a favour at the end of the last school year- so Yoongi didn’t really want to say no.

It had been a long day for Yoongi, and he was really fed up. He was swamped with work and saw no way that he could get any done before the next day (which is when it was due). He was in the library, table covered in paper and books, with his head in his hands.

When his first-year friend Taehyung bounded up to the table, usual wide smile adorning his features, Yoongi had groaned. They met through Hoseok, Yoongi’s best friend.-And Yoongi (honestly) thought Taehyung was a little annoying.

“Hi hyung, do you need any help?” Taehyung had asked, sitting opposite the elder. Yoongi groaned into his hands. Taehyung looked at the books and the parchment in front of him- and took things into his own hands.

When Yoongi looked up next, he saw Taehyung writing his essay for him- eyes darting from Yoongi’s plan of what he was going to write to the parchment. When Yoongi peered at what he was writing, he was impressed. This first-year knows his stuff, no matter how dumb he may look sometimes.

“I’m sure you’ve got lots to do. Don’t worry I’ll do this for you,”

And thanks to Taehyung, Yoongi got his work done, and at good quality.

 

Yoongi steps through the portrait hole and into the common room. His eyes scan the small crowds of people, but he can’t find who he’s looking for. He walks around a little, but he’s sure that Jeon Jungkook isn’t here.

Stepping into the dorm room for the current second-years is weird. He’s never been in another dorm room apart from his own. He knocks twice before entering, just a bit of warning to whoever’s inside that he’s going in.

There’s just one person there, sat with their back to him. His head is down, and Yoongi can see that he’s fiddling with something in his hands. Warily, Yoongi goes further into the room, closer to the boy.

“Uh- are you Jungkook?” Yoongi asks, and the boy turns around, eyes wide with fear. Yeah that’s him.

But he looks scared of Yoongi, like the elder is a threat. Yeah, Yoongi nearly always has a blank face, but he wouldn’t hurt the kid. His eyes wander to the bruise on the boy’s cheek. Someone must have punched him.

When Yoongi takes a step forward, Jungkook jumps up and takes a step back. Yoongi tries to soften his features, maybe look more approachable, but Jungkook is terrified still- chest rising and falling quickly.

Yoongi goes into his bag, pulling out the tupperware Taehyung had given him. Jungkook looks from it to Yoongi, confused.

“Kid, I’m not going to hurt you,” Yoongi’s voice comes out soft but assuring, but Jungkook only relaxes a little. He sits down on the bed and pats the space next to him, Jungkook doesn’t make any advances to move and sit down next to him. “Taehyung packed up some dinner for you,”

At the mention of the name, Jungkook looks at him, surprised. Yoongi holds out the tupperware again, with a fork. Jungkook takes it and sits down next to Yoongi on his bed, shaking. Yoongi gets out his own dinner that Taehyung had packed up too (he didn’t want to sit in the hall).

They eat in silence. Yoongi can feel that Jungkook keeps looking at him, wary. He ignores it though, he can feel the nerves radiating off of the kid. Jungkook doesn’t eat much at first, only picking at his food (Taehyung had made a good choice, packing him rice and chicken) but after he’s a little more comfortable, he manages to eat it all.

Neither of them say a word until they’re both finished. When Yoongi turns to Jungkook, eyebrows creased, Jungkook flinches.

“What happened?” Yoongi says, voice quiet as to not scare Jungkook any more.

“Thank you for the food,” Jungkook says quieter, ignoring Yoongi’s question altogether.

“It was Taehyung, didn’t want you going hungry,” Yoongi says, eyes scanning up and down Jungkook to see if he was injured anywhere else. “What happened?”

Jungkook shrugs, and Yoongi sighs impatiently. Jungkook flinches anyway. “It’s o-okay, just a misunderstanding,”

“Seems like there’s a lot of those when it comes to you, eh kid?” Jungkook looks at him, eyebrows knitted in confusion but eyes wide with surprise.

Yoongi looks around the room- and it strikes him how far Jungkook’s bed is from the others- like the other people in his dorm are distancing themselves away from him.

_What the fuck is this? All of the other beds are huddled together like cold penguins, and this kid has been left to freeze to death._

He’s heard lots about this kid, but none of them seem to be true as he looks at this nervous boy who flinched at so much as a sigh from the elder. He’s obviously being misunderstood- people looking at his family name rather than him.

Yoongi once heard that Jungkook threatened to send his auntie after anyone who got too close- but that seems like utter bullshit to Yoongi. This kid may be a Jeon, but he doesn’t look like the sort to throw out threats like that. And if he really had said it, then why had someone risked themselves by beating him up?

“I’m Min Yoongi.” He introduces himself and Jungkook nods timidly, still expecting something bad to happen.

Yoongi makes his departure then, waving to the younger kid. He does stop in front of the door before he leaves fully- does he really want to leave him? But Jungkook is already getting ready for bed, getting his pyjamas from his trunk.

“Jungkook,” He calls out before he leaves, the younger looks to him, frozen. “Stay safe.”

Yoongi goes back to his dorm and grabs his notebook. He walks through the busy common room, nodding at people who smile at him. Once he makes it through the portrait hole, he feels someone jump in front of him.

A gasp rips from his throat and his hands instinctively tighten around his notebook as he hits out relentlessly at the figure in front of him. The figure groans and eventually falls to the floor, Yoongi curses as he falls too- having leant too far forward to hit the person again.

Yoongi groans, side aching from the fall. When he opens his eyes, he sees a mop of blonde hair and yellow robes.

“TAEHYUNG!” Yoongi shouts, scrambling to stand up. Taehyung groans, rolling around on the floor. Yoongi had landed half on him. “Don’t jump me like that,”

Taehyung continues to groan, and Yoongi rolls his eyes. He holds his hand out, and Taehyung takes it. When the younger stands up, he pouts, feeling sorry for himself. Yoongi rolls his eyes again an starts walking to the astronomy tower, Taehyung follows.

“I just want to know if he’s okay,” Taehyung calls to Yoongi, and the elder freezes on the spot, his anger dissipating for a moment. Yoongi turns around, and Taehyung genuinely looks worried.

_Why does he care so much for the kid? He doesn’t even know him_

“He’s bruised up, and he seems really upset about something. But he ate all of his dinner so that might settle you a bit,” Yoongi steps closer to Taehyung to talk, so he didn’t have to shout. Yoongi shuffles where he’s stood, a little uncomfortable at what he saw. “They- they pushed their beds away from his. Like, they’re scared of him? His bed is all on its own and the others are close together.”

Taehyung sighs, eyebrows knitted together. He thanks Yoongi softly then walks off, leaving the elder alone.

Yoongi shrugs, slightly battered notebook in hand.

_

Taehyung is muggleborn.

 His mother, the loveliest Taehyung is sure he will ever know, owns a café- a café where all the food is homemade. Taehyung used to help her when she cooked- and it didn’t take long for him to harvest a love for baking (even if he wasn’t very good at first). Countless nights were spent by the two of them baking cupcakes, cookies, doughnuts, pastries, and even bread if Taehyung felt patient enough.

Sometimes Taehyung would mess up badly, on big orders too- but she wouldn’t shout at him. What was the point of shouting at him? It isn’t like he purposefully burned some cookies- or purposefully forgot to add sugar to a cookie mix. She’s just sigh, tell him it was okay, and they’d work together to start again.

He’s close to his dad too. He’s a doctor in the local hospital, and well respected in the area. Taehyung may seem quite dumb and oblivious, but he’s smart- he has his dad to thank for that. Since he was a little kid, he and his dad would read together, quiz each other, and Taehyung learned to pick up things easily.

At breakfast, Taehyung and his dad would compete, both of them spouting weird facts about the world. Taehyung’s mum would listen in, but Taehyung’s sure that she doesn’t really care for it. When his dad would return from work, Taehyung would sit on his knee and tell him about his day- every single detail.

When he got the letter put through his letterbox, with the cream envelope and red wax seal- the letter that started his life as a wizard, Taehyung knew he wanted to be a goddamn amazing wizard to make his parents proud.

They went to diagon alley (which Taehyung LOVED, there were so many new things to explore and see) and picked up everything he needed for school, and some extra books about the wizarding world; Taehyung wanted to do his research.

That night, he and his parents looked up everything they could, amazed. Of course, they came across dark wizarding families, ones that their crimes made all their noses turn up in disgust. That was the first time Taehyung heard of the Jeon family.

There’s history of dark magic all over the family, but two cases in particular made Taehyung feel sick to the core.

Minsu Jeon, serial killer. He went into several muggle pubs in one night and slaughtered over 100 people. Before he could be caught, he went into hiding- he slaughtered families and took their homes, lived in there for a few days, then left. By the end of his 6 months in hiding, he had killed hundreds more. He was, of course, taken to Askaban and is still locked up in there today.

Alena Jeon, daughter of Jeon Minsu, had tried to get back at the wizarding world for taking away her father. She burned down houses, pubs, entire villages if she was feeling angry enough. But she wasn’t caught for 5 years, fleeing the country after every arson attack. When she was caught, she was also sentenced to life in Askaban.

“I don’t like them,” Taehyung said, voice trembling slightly. Some wizards were really scary. “The Jeons,”

“They might not all be bad, sweetpea.” His mother had cooed, closing the book in front of them, “In life there are bad apples, and there are good ones. Not all the bad apples come from the same tree,”

 

When Taehyung had seen Jeon Jungkook in the great hall that day, flustered and trying to get past Namjoon, Taehyung could tell that he was a good apple.  


	4. Chapter 4

It’s getting colder outside, and it feels like Jungkook’s going to look down at his feet and see that there are icicles there. The people in his dorm stole his duvet, again, but he was in too deep of a sleep to notice.

He sits up slowly, crossing his legs to tuck his toes under his thighs in hope to get some heat to them. Everyone’s just waking up- but no one looks at him. Not even as he starts coughing roughly- hand grasping the fabric of his shirt as his chest burns.

Jungkook gets dressed quickly, not wanting to be exposed to the cold long. When he’s in all of his uniform and robes, he feels warmer and he sighs contently as he packs away his pyjamas and starts to make his bed. He pulls the bedsheets a little hard, and his hand lets go of the fabric- but his arm still moves and he ends up hitting himself on the cheek.

On a normal day, this would be okay- nothing bad. But he hit right over the bruises from the previous days’ beating- so it makes his eyes water as pain slaps him in the face. He can hear them laughing at him, but he pays no mind as he leaves the dorm room. Jungkook doesn’t sit in the common room, opting to just go straight to breakfast.

The corridors are full of life, but everything seems to still when Jungkook walks past. He can feel eyes on the bruise on his cheek, on his split lip. People snigger, they point and talk and Jungkook hates it- but what can he do? Nothing, that’s what.

Even more eyes are on him as he walks through the great hall, and the whispers have become shouts as some people from his own house jeer at him. He doesn’t know what they’re saying. He doesn’t care what they’re saying.

Jungkook wants to go home.

“Not so tough now are you, Jeon?” A third year quips, standing up from his seat at the table to block Jungkook’s path. Jungkook looks up at him, doe eyes wide.

He doesn’t say a word, doesn’t want to make things worse for himself. The older guy, towering over him like a skyscraper, sneers- seeing this as ammunition. He leans down, so that he and Jungkook’s foreheads are close to touching.

“Where are your friends?” The elder says it quietly, taunting in Jungkook’s ear.

Jungkook takes a step backwards, not expecting the elder to come so close to him. The other takes a step forward, and Jungkook takes another step back.

“L-Leave me alone, please,” Jungkook’s voice is quiet, shaking. He didn’t want to say it, the words ripped from his mouth without him having any control over them. The bully straightens up, eyebrow quirking at the younger’s outburst.

Then he laughs, loud and obnoxious.

Eyes turn to them, curious and stabbing to Jungkook. It feels like each set of eyes is a set of daggers, aimed straight for him. He ducks away, lowering his head as he takes quick strides to a seat. More than once his shaking figure nearly falls, not paying much notice to where he’s walling- thoughts dominated by the need for somewhere to sit and calm down.

When he sits down, the space around him clears, everyone scampering away.

He wants to cry, to scream until his lungs give out. “IM NOT A THREAT” He would cry, shouting it loud enough to echo. Everyone would hear, but he knows that they wouldn’t listen. They’d call him short tempered and just distance themselves more.

Watching them shuffle away from him, eyes locked onto him- like he could attack at any moment- makes him feel weak rather than powerful. If they all turned on him, he would have no chance. The ache in his cheek tells him that he cant handle it if even one decides to go after him.

He feels so lonely, the empty space around him a constant reminder.

He feels like he’s going to be swallowed whole.

 

“Oi!” A voice. A shove. Taehyung groans. “Get up, quick! You’re going to miss your first lesson,”

Taehyung shoots up quickly, pushing his disshevleed bangs out of his face to see an angry faced certain someone stood next to his bed. His brown hair is styled to its usual perfection, thick lips dressed in a pout.

“The bell to set off for first lesson is going off in 5 minutes, you better be ready and out of this dormitory by then, young man.” Seokjin scolds, already passing Taehyung his uniform. When the younger is too tired to move or respond, Seokjin sighs.

The elder starts unbuttoning Taehyung’s shirt, the younger barely reigistering whats happening until Seokjin does up his last button of his school shirt. One stern look from Seokjin and Taehyung jumps up to finish the rest of his uniform himself.

He runs to his first lesson, bag smacking him in the side as he rushes through the empty corridoors. When he swings open the classroom door, panting, all eyes are on him. A hand sweeps up to fix his hair and he tries to walk to his seat as peacefully as possible.

But, luck is not on his side.

As he’s approaching his seat, he trips up on his robes (they’re too big for him). As he trips over, he drops his bag and lands on it as he hits his head on the floor.

Everything feels strange, the room is moving as faces peer down at him. When he sees the furrowed brows of Professor Flitwick, he closes his eyes- head throbbing. He opens his eyes again, voices around him muffled, but they close again as the room turns dark.

_Ohhhh fuck, my head. How did I manage that? Tripping over my feet and banging my head? Stupid robes. Oh god, I landed on my bag? If I’ve smashed that ink bottle it means my charms homework is ruined._

“Taetae?”

Taehyung opens his eyes, everything hurting as he looks up at Jimin, blonde hair falling into his eyes and lip bitten in concern. When he sees Taehyung smiling at him, he sighs and rubs a small hand over his eyes.

“God, are you okay?” Jimin asks, a hand flying out to help Taehyung sit up when he sees the other struggling. “You scared me, someone from your class- Jackson? Told me that you had an incident in class and you got sent to the hospital. Madam Pomfrey told me what happened. You’re an idiot sometimes,”

Taehyung looks around the hospital ward, it’s just him and Jimin there. His eyes catch the sky outside- it’s only afternoon. He hasn’t been out long.

The sound of a door opening directs both of their attention to the other side of the ward, where Madam Pomfrey’s office. She emerges, bottle in hand. Taehyung grimaces.

_I’m gonna have to drink some seriously disgusting medicine aren’t I._

Jimin looks at Taehyung sympathetically, both of them having the same thought.

“A very nasty bang, Taehyung.” Madam Pomfrey sighs, opening the cap to the medicine. She grabs a cup from the side of Taehyung’s bed. “You cracked your skull,”

Jimin gasps, sending his best friend a sympathetic look again. “It really hurts,” Taehyung complains. “How long until it doesn’t hurt?” He can feel tears threatening to build up, the pain almost unbearable.

Madam Pomfrey starts to pour a disgusting black liquid into the cup, and Taehyung tries not to look as he sees it bubble at the surface. “It will hurt less after you drink this. Your head may hurt a little for a week – there’s only so much treatment I can give. You need to be very careful, Taehyung,”

Taehyung holds the cup in two hands, nose scrunched at the animated drink in front of him. He takes a deep breath and raises it to his lips, but it goes no further as he smells it and pulls it away from his face immediately. Both Madam Pomfrey and Jimin sigh.

“Do you need to hold my hand?” Jimin says it sarcastically, in a flat tone. But Taehyung takes it seriously, holding out one hand with puppy eyes. Jimin sighs and takes it, and Taehyung looks back down at the cup.

“All of it?” Taehyung asks in a small voice, and Madam Pomfrey nods. He sighs.

And in one go, he tips it down his throat- his eyes scrunched closed, hands shaking. He squeezes Jimin’s hand quite hard, and he feels the elder inhale sharply. When he’s managed to swallow it all, Madam Pomfrey leaves- but not before telling him that he’s allowed to dinner if he’s feeling a bit better.

“You have a bruise on your cheek,” Jimin says, concerned. Taehyung shrugs, he doesn’t care much for how he looks. “Well done for drinking all of that, it looked awful.”

Taehyung smiles, boxy. Jimin sits on the chair at the side of his bed, moving Taehyung’s bag from there to the floor. Taehyung lights up and reaches for it, and Jimin passes it to him. Scrambling hands go into the bag, and pull out the fully intact ink bottle, with the glass not smashed and the cap on tight. Taehyung sighs in content and puts his bag  back on the floor.

A throaty cough has Taehyung looking to the foot of his bed, and he smiles when he sees Min Yoongi stood there. Beside him, Kim Namjoon- his eyebrows furrowed as his eyes rake over Taehyung.

“What are we going to do with you, kid?”

 -

Jungkook wants to cry.

He’s sat in defence against the dark arts, book open in front of him and quill in hand as he copies from the board. But everything feels wrong and he wants to storm out of the room. But he knows that if he did everyone would know how upset he is, and he doesn’t want to look like a baby.

 They don’t have their usual teacher, he’s had to go home for some sort of family emergency.

As soon as everyone had sat down In class, the teacher had looked over them all. His eyes had met each students as he silently assessed them. As soon as they landed on Jungkook’s- his eyebrows raised. Jungkook knew then that something bad was going to happen.

The classroom is arranged into rows of single desks, Jungkook at once in the corner of the front row.

The other students could clearly see the teacher judging him. So one kid, sat at the desk next to Jungkook, raised his hand.

“Do we have to sit near him? He isn’t normal, professor,”

The words had hurt Jungkook, more than he’d felt in a while. He had to physically hold his own hand under the desk to try and ground himself. He thought he was going to be sick as the teacher’s face broke out into a wicked smile.

_Please just ignore that comment, I’m normal. I promise I’m normal. I wouldn’t hurt anyone in here, no matter how much they upset me. Please don’t let them move away, don’t distance me more. They’d never drop it._

“You don’t have to sit near him. Feel free to move your desks away,”

Jungkook closed his eyes so he didn’t have to see people moving their tables away, as far as possible. He can hear the screeching of them against the floor, the murmurs behind him, the laughter as people see him there, all on his own.

Everyone but him is engaged in the lesson, answering questions, making jokes. The teacher, he discovers, actually has a good sense of humour. He jokes around with people, even gives them a 10 minute break to talk mid lesson.

And Jungkook is excluded from everything, loneliness becoming the only feeling, everything else just feels numb. No anger, no happiness, just loneliness.

The lesson is dismissed and Jungkook physically winces when he sees that all of the desks are at the very very back of the room, against the wall. People had distanced themselves this much.

He keeps his head down, not wanting to look any more, he’s scared that people are going to catch the pain in his eyes.

The walk to the great hall clears his head a little, calms him down some. But there’s still a massive weight on his shoulders and in his heart, it feels as though he isn’t even walking, he’s being dragged. He doesn’t feel… here.

As always, the great hall is bustling with life, and Jungkook isn’t part of it. He feels asif he’s on autopilot as he sits on the bench.

The girl at the side of him lets out a little yelp of surprise as her eyes catch him. Her hands immediately go to the books infront of her and she gather’s them  in her arms as she leaves, moving further up the bench to sit with some other girls. Jungkook watches it sadly.

He covers his eyes with one hand and leaves his other arm leaning on the desk beside him. His fingers dig into the table as he tries to control his feelings.

_I’m not going to hurt anyone_

_I’m a Jeon, but we’re not all bad._

_Please, someone, listen to me._

His hand that was on the desk feels warm. Jungkook keeps his other hand over his eyes, but his other arm is being lifted and something even warmer presses against his knuckles.

Jungkook blinks as he gets used to the light again, and he turns to his side to see yellow robes, the owner of them holding his hand, their finger’s interlocked. His lips are next to Jungkook’s knuckles, and he kisses them again.

Taehyung smiles.

Jungkook bursts into tears.

Arms wrap around him straight away, and Jungkook is left sobbing into a warm and welcoming chest. Taehyung is rubbing his back in circles, and Jungkook is shaking. He wants to wrap his arms around Taehyung’s waist, to actually hug him (because god knows he needs the comfort) but his hands just grasp at the front of the elder’s shirt as pain fills every part of his body.

It’s so weird to be hugged and comforted by someone who isn’t his mother. But it feels good, and nice, and warm, and it makes his heart feels like it’s going to leap out of his chest.

His sobs are shaking his entire body, probably leaving a wet patch on the front of Taehyung’s shirt. The elder doesn’t care though, he carries on rubbing Jungkook’s back and holding him to his chest.

Not even 5 minutes pass before Jungkook pulls away- he didn’t want to do it, it made him feel like he was pulling a knife out of a wound. Jungkook rubs at his eyes, not daring to look at the elder, embarrassed for crying not only in front of him, but on him.

A realisation hits Jungkook.

_Someone, Taehyung, actually wanted to sit with me. He sat next to me- this isn’t even his house. He sat next to me and he held my hand, he kissed my knuckles twice. He cares._

_someone cares about me_

He feels like he could be sick with the overwhelming feelings drowning him- its like he’s been thrown into the ocean.

“What’s wrong?” Taehyung says quietly, shuffling right up to Jungkook so they can talk in whispers. Jungkook can feel eyes on them.

Jungkook shakes his head, feeling too weak to answer Taehyung. He feels like he could burst into tears again. The classroom, the desks, the thought of explaining it all right now makes it feel sick.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Taehyung assures. Jungkook’s eyes ghost over the elder’s face properly, and he notices a bruise on the apple of his cheek, close to wear Jungkook has one.

_What happened? Someone hurt him?_

Taehyung sees the gaze on his cheek, and he smiles sadly.

“I fell over.” He says, smile still adorning his cheeks. His eyes catch on Jungkook’s own bruise, “Hey, we’re twins now.”

Jungkook grins.  


	5. Chapter 5

Taehyung’s head is killing, every sound making him want to cry. But, even though he’s only been in the infirmary a few hours, he wants out. So he lies.

“Madam Pomfrey- can I go to dinner? I feel okay,” Taehyung had said with a smile, internally wincing at the pressure smiling brought to his already throbbing head. She didn’t look too convinced, so Taehyung took it a step further and shook his head (he wanted to show that it didn’t hurt to do it, but he’s sure he’s never been in so much pain before).

“Go on then, but be careful. If there are any major problems then come back!” She orders, finger wagging at him, Taehyung nods dutifully.

He grabs his battered school bag and slings it over a shoulder. It feels weird to be stood up when his head doesn’t feel right, but he doesn’t let it show as he starts to steadily walk to the hall. He sees a few people from his class, who ask him how hes feeling and he shrugs it off, telling them all that he feels fine (he doesn’t).

Entering the hall feels like a punch in the throat, the noise getting to him straight away.

Maybe it wasn’t a great idea to leave his bed.

He scans the hall, and spots Jimin and Hoseok sat together at the Gryffindor table.  Neither of them see him, they seem to be in an argument? Jimin’s blonde hair is flopping as he shouts at the elder for something, his arms flying everywhere as Hoseok clearly tries not to laugh. Taehyung smiles fondly.

_Should I sneak up to them? Actually, should I just go back to the infirmary? I don’t fancy this headache getting worse._

His eyes scan the hall, seeing which way would be the best way to sneak up to them. He only briefly looks at the slytherin table, but his head quickly moves back for a second glance when he spots Jungkook.

The younger isn’t eating, and there’s a lot of space around him- even though the rest of the bench looks crowded. He looks like he’s in pain- one hand over his face and the other digging into the desk.

Taehyung forgets all about wanting to go back to the infirmary, or going to see Jimin and Hoseok.

_Jungkook, are you okay?_

His robes fly behind him as he rushes to get to the desk fast, he nearly walks into a first year- who he apologises to fleetingly. Once he gets to the bench, he smiles down at Jungkook, expecting the younger to look up at him and smile.

But Jungkook doesn’t see him, too entranced in his own world.

Taehyung sits in the seat next to him, and immediately feels everyone looking at him. A boy with black hair is looking at Taehyung in fear and confusion, Taehyung shuffles closer to Jungkook.

His chest is heaving and his hands are shaking, and Taehyung suddenly forgot about the pain in his head.

Tentatively, he reaches a hand out and takes Jungkook’s in his. He doesn’t stir. Taehyung interlocks their fingers and tries to ignore the small leap in his heart when Jungkook squeezed his hand.

Before he can think things through, he’s bringing Jungkook’s knuckles to his lips and kissing them. Jungkook looks at him then, eyes wide with surprise. Taehyung kisses them once more and drops their hands.

He offers a weak smile.

Jungkook’s mouth wavers, and there are tears filling his eyes.

Taehyung doesn’t think twice before pulling the younger into his chest. Jungkook’s hands grip at his shirt, and Taehyung rubs his back in small circles. Jungkook is crying, hard.

They’re lucky the hall isn’t too busy, and most of the attention is diverted to the teacher’s table- where two teachers are arguing.

But when Taehyung looks up straight ahead, he sees 4 pairs of eyes staring at him, all in shock, confusion, and… fear?

Jimin’s mouth is dropped open, and his eyes wide. His hand- which is wielding a spoon- is halfway to his mouth, trapped in midair. Hoseok’s eyebrows are  furrowed and eyes narrowed. Namjoon, who is at a completely different table to the other two- also has his mouth hanging open, catching flies. Seokjin, who (surprisingly) is sat next to Namjoon, has his mouth set in a line and eyes stern as he tries to work out what is happening.

Taehyung looks away.

Jungkook’s sobs die away quickly, and they pull away. Taehyung makes small conversation, asking the younger what’s wrong, but he doesn’t want to say anything. So, they eat in silence, Jungkook not daring to look at Taehyung (the latters thinks its because of embrassment, even though he thinks theres nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone cries sometimes, Taehyung’s glad he could be here for him).

As they finish up eating, Taehyung leans to Jungkook’s ear to talk to him. Jungkook jumps a little at the proximity.

“Lets get out of here,” Taehyung’s deep voice says, and Jungkook can do nothing else but nod along dumbly.

Taehyung stands up first, and Jungkook follows as he starts to walk towards the exit. When they get to the main doors of the building, Jungkook heisitates.

_Is he taking me outside to beat me up? He’s fed up of me now isn’t he. I cried on him, I embarrassed him._

Jungkook doesn’t realise he’s been stood still for too long until he feels a hand on his. He looks at his hand, which is intertwined with another, and lets his eyes drag up the persons arm and up his body until he’s met with Taehyung’s soft smile.

“Come on,” He says, voice deep unshaking, so Jungkook does.

Jungkook never realised how beautiful the grounds of Hogwarts really were, he’s never been out here before. He was always too scared that someone would bet him up out here, where people may not be around, and hurt him- maybe even kill him.

But it’s beautiful as they walk down a gravel path, a small journey of about 5 minutes, Jungkook sees the lake, the setting sun reflecting off of it. They sit on a bench a little away from the lake, hands still intertwined- Jungkook’s cheek redden when he sees it.

They don’t say anything for a good twenty minutes. They just sit there, staring out at the grounds and listening to the sounds of the birds in the trees, the light splashing of the water in the lake caused by the slight wind, and the rhythm of each other’s breathing.

“I was in the infirmary today, smashed my head open.” Taehyung says casually, not looking at Jungkook- even when the younger whipped around to look at him, worried, “Hurts like hell, and apparently its gonna hurt for the entire week. Fun.”

“What happened?” Jungkook says no louder than a whisper, large doe eyes looking over Taehyung’s face- he thought something bad had happened as soon as he saw the bruise on the elder’s face.

Taehyung turns to Jungkook then, tired smile breaking out onto his face. “Tripped over my robes and fell, bashed my face and head on the floor,” Jungkook makes a small pained noise, hating the thought of something happening. Taehyung shoves his bangs out of his eyes with one hand, “I’ll be fine,”

Jungkook squeezes his hand, and Taehyung squeezes back.

The sky is a beautiful cascade of pink and blue hues, Jungkook watches the colours dance with awe filled eyes. Taehyung doesn’t- he watches Jungkook in concern. Concern that this is the only time that he’s ever seen Jungkook look content.

Jungkook turns to Taehyung suddenly, and the elder looks back, curious of the eyes on him. Taehyung raises an eyebrow in question, and Jungkook bites his lip and swallows.

_Am I really going to say this? Show my weak side so soon? I guess I’ve already cried on him, can’t get any worse than that._

“Thank you,” Jungkook says softly, and Taehyung turns to him, confused. Jungkook keeps looking forward, his cheeks starting to burn. “You’re the first p-person who’s ever been nice to me here,”

There’s a short silence, one in which Jungkook cringes at himself and Taehyung is left with an emotionless face.

“Everyone should be nice to you, Jungkook. You’ve done nothing wrong,” Taehyung’s eyes are soft, and Jungkook feels safe when he looks into them, cheeks still burning. “You don’t need to apologise,”

“People are too scared of me to be nice,” Jungkook says in one breath, he looks down at his lap, playing with his fingers.

Suddenly there’s a force on his chin, making it so the younger is staring at the elder again. Jungkook swallows.

“I’m not scared,” He says it with so much confidence that Jungkook really believes him. And for the first time ever, he sees light.

Light that more people like Taehyung will come along and welcome him into their hearts.

“Do you want to go back to the castle?”

Jungkook doesn’t, but he knows they have to get back soon or they’ll get detention for being out of the castle at this hour (that is, if Filch or Mrs Norris catches them).

Jungkook nods, and Taehyung holds his hand as they walk back.

 

They’re in the castle not even for five minutes before they have someone approach them, angry. They were walking in the corridor towards the infirmary (Taehyung wanted to check in with Madam Pomfrey and get some more pain killers, hands now separated (Jungkook had let go when they entered the castle- all too aware that they’d get weird looks).

A short boy, with blonde hair and red robes had marched up to them, eyebrows creased. He looked angry, really angry. His eyes were dark, and fists clenched as he came up to them. Jungkook flinched as he got closer, but Taehyung smiled broadly.

“Kim Taehyung! What are you doing?” He near enough shrieks, as he comes to a stop before Taehyung and Jungkook.

“Went for a walk,” Taehyung smiles, and the male infront of them sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Do you know how worried I was? You’re supposed to be in the infirmary, then you were in the great hall! And then you disappeared before dinner was even over! What are you thinking? You are ill Kim Taehyung!” Jimin is really having a go, finger coming out to point at Taehyung. A few people pass with amused glances, which quickly change to confusion when they spot Jungkook stood with them. “How can you disappear like that?”

Jimin’s eye suddenly catches Jungkook and he pauses. Jungkook is ready for it, the disgusted comment- he’ll say how he doesn’t want Taehyung with someone like Jungkook. He’ll make some snarky comment about Jungkook dragging Taehyung around when he’s poorly. He’ll stop Taehyung from seeing Jungkook.

“Of course I don’t blame you Jungkook,” Jimin starts, tone soft as he looks at Jungkook, “But this asshole needs to be more responsible!” His voice turns sharp again as he turns to Taehyung.

Jungkook is shocked. Another person was nice to Jungkook. He spoke so softly, looked at him with a small smile.

He must look a picture, wide eyes and mouth hanging open. When he catches Taehyung looking at him _lovingly?_ he composes himself. As Jimin continues to nag at Taehyung, Jungkook looks down at his feet, not really sure what he’s feeling.

“I have to meet Hoseok, he’s helping me with my charms homework,” Jimin sighs, placing his hands on his hips. “Don’t think this is the last of your ass-whooping young man,”

He flashes Jungkook a pearly smile. And with that, he’s gone. Walking away from them with his head held high, making him seem inches taller than he actually is.

“Sorry about that,” Taehyung grins, “I swear Jimin worries more than my mother,”

His smile is contagious, and Jungkook ends up breaking into a bunny grin himself, hands folded together shyly. Taehyung dramatically gasps and grabs the front of his robes, where his heart is. Jungkook pauses momentarily then realises what the elder is implying and gets shy, hands fidgeting and eyes scrunching up.

A minute or so passes where neither really knows what to say. They just stand there in the coridoor, next to eachother.

People are staring, looking at Taehyung like he’s grown another head. The elder notices this attention, of course, but doesn’t move even a centermeter away from the younger. Once he gets a particularly sour glare from a first-year, Taehyung steps it up a notch and throws his arm around Jungkook’s shoulder.

_What is he doing? People might start hating him too if they find out we’re close._

_Are we close? Are we… friends?_

Jungkook suddenly feels too hot in his own skin.

“S-sorry,” Jungkook breaks away from Taehyung, leaving the other looking confused, “I have to go, sorry,”

Jungkook nearly trips over his robes as he walks away, shaking lightly. He turns back to look at Taehyung, to see if he looks angry.

But Taehyung just smiles and offers him a small wave. Jungkook just smiles warily, heart thudding in his chest.

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

“What were you doing with Jeon Jungkook?” Jimin hisses to Taehyung as they walk to breakfast together. “I’m not saying he’s a bad kid, I’m sure if he wanted to kill someone he would’ve done it by now. I feel sorry for him, really. But it isn’t good for you to be seen with him,”

Taehyung scrunches up his eyebrows and over-exaggerates a pout. “Why?”

“People won’t like that you’re associated with him. They might think you’re a bad person,” Jimin looks genuinely worried, and Taehyung knows that he only has good intentions. But he isn’t going to listen to him. Jungkook’s already earned a little spot in Taehyung’s heart, right next to hot bread.

He fucking loves hot bread.

“Yah!” A hand comes down on Taehyung’s shoulder and the younger yelps, turning behind him quickly to see Hoseok. He’s smiling brightly, but he looks badly put together. His hair is a bit of a mess, and he has toothpaste smeared on the side of his mouth. “I woke up late, thank GOD I didn’t miss breakfast. Youngjae told me that you came to the common room this morning. Why didn’t you wake me up?”

Taehyung shrugs away the accusatory look, “I went up hours ago, tried to wake Jimin up so he could go on a walk with me,”

At that comment, both elders shake their heads. They’ve warned him multiple times that he goes to bed too late and wakes up too early. It isn’t good for him. But as soon as they start to critic his choices verbally, Taehyung always defends himself with the same comment (‘I go to sleep late because I like to think about the world. And I wake up early because I’m excited for a new day!’).

He isn’t always a morning person, at least once every couple weeks he’ll have to be woken up by Seokjin when his exhaustion catches up with him and he sleeps too late.

“You could’ve woken me up! We’re in the same house!” Hoseok suddenly shrieks, only just noticing Jimin stood with them.

“It’s a Saturday- and like every other Saturday morning I went to the owlery to see Chicken,” Jimin shrugs. “You can wake yourself up, you’re old enough,”

“Well,” Hoseok sighs, shoving his hands into his pockets. His voice turns monotone and they stop walking as he looks at both of them with a glare. “If you wanted to hurt me, you’ve succeeded.”

Taehyung’s the first to crack a smile, white teeth showing as his eyes crinkle. It only takes moments for Jimin to bust into giggles, folding into himself as he screws his eyes shut. Hoseok remains monotone, but his lips are shaking and it looks like his sunshine grin is going to break free at any moment.

Before it can break free, their moment is broken by a tall teenager creeping behind them and slapping his hands down on Hoseok’s shoulders from behind. He utters one word- ‘boo’.

Hoseok screams. He topples to the floor as he tries to grab his wand. The person who scared him is so surprised that he falls over too, long arms swinging like windmills as he tries to regain his balance- but it is already too late.

Hoseok screams again as a weight lands on him- Namjoon.

Taehyung and Jimin cannot contain themselves. Tears come to their eyes straight away as they clutch onto each other and laugh their throats dry. 

As they start to calm down, Taehyung spots a familiar face in the crowds passing by. He doesn’t even announce his departure before he’s off, slipping between people until he’s walking next to Jeon Jungkook.

The younger looks at him with big, scared eyes. Taehyung smiles- he knows how timid he is, he just needs to be gentle with him.

“How are you?” Taehyung asks, starting the conversation off nice and easy. Jungkook doesn’t look at him when he talks, he looks down at his feet.

“I’m tired,” Jungkook confesses, shrugging lightly (which makes Taehyung want to coo because the younger is fucking CUTE) “Uh- you?”

Taehyung sighs. “My head hurts, but other than that Im good!” He barely just catches Jungkook’s small smile as Taehyung’s voice breaks mid sentence. “Did you not sleep well?”

“I like to wake up early to go on walks sometimes,” Jungkook says it so quietly that Taehyung almost misses it. “I woke up a bit too early today though. So I didn’t get much sleep last night,”

Taehyung grins so wide his mouth aches. “You like to walk in a morning? Really? I- I do too! Oh my god we can be walking buddies!”

Jungkook looks scared again as he timidly says “Uh yeah sure!” and Taehyung thinks he might have come across too strong.

As they enter the great hall, they’re both unsurprised to see how ecstatic everyone is. It’s a Saturday, of course everyone is excited. It’s the day of freedom and relaxing.

“What are you doing?” Jungkook says in a whisper, eyes alert as Taehyung grabs his hand and interlocks their fingers. Taehyng just smiles and tugs on his arm a little, willing him to follow him to the Gryffindor table. “Taehyung- I cant go there. Tae-“

“Everyone, meet Jungkook.” Taehyung says with a wide grin, presenting his youngest friend to Jimin and Hoseok. “Well, Jimin and Jungkook talked last night so- Hoseok, meet Jungkook!”

Jungkook gives Taehyung another scared look and goes completely frozen as Taehyung sits down. He shakily leans down to whisper in Taehyung’s ear. “They won’t like me, I can’t sit here,”

It hurts Taehyung how timid and unsure the younger is, but it just drives him to pat the seat next to him- another invite for him to sit down.

Hoseok’s hearing is good, and it isn’t a surprise when he gives the younger a kind smile- trying to be as welcoming as possible.

“Hi! I’m Hoseok Jung,” His sunshine smile breaks out soon enough and Jungkook timidly returns a tight lipped smile.

“I’m Jungkook Jeon,” Jungkook says quietly, shame laced in his tone.

“Jimin Park, but you already met me yesterday,” Jimin intervenes with a smile, “I’m not always as harsh as I was last night. It’s just Taehyung that gets that treatment usually,”

Conversation ends there as they start to tuck into breakfast. Jungkook eats uncertainly at first, just nibbling on a piece of toast. But he gains a little confidence when he sees how Hoseok eats- shoving as much in as possible at once and bopping his head to some tune heard only by him as he chews.

“Do you have any hobbies?” Hoseok asks, catching Jungkook off guard a bit. The younger clears his throat.

“No,” Jungkook says quietly, giving a little shrug. “Do – uh- do you?”

“I dance,” Hoseok smiles wide, and its so pretty even though he has a bit of cereal in his teeth.

Jungkook suddenly looks at Hoseok with stars in his eyes. “Really? That’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to dance,” Jungkook starts off excited, but his voice slowly dies down as he gets more embarrassed by his outburst.

“Hey! Theres nothing stopping you! Me and Jimin found a room- it’s tucked away so no-one else goes there- and we dance. You should definitely come along if its something you’re into. I can teach you a few moves.” Hoseok says, eyes disappearing as he smiles. Jungkook pauses- eyes shocked and toast halfway up to his mouth.

“Really?” Jungkook says quietly- and Taehyung is very surprised that the younger didn’t back away and try and isolate himself. Because Hoseok is getting pretty personal, and Taehyung can tell from experience that Jungkook doesn’t like that line of conversation.

“For sure,” Hoseok smiles.

They’re interrupted by a speech from the headmaster. While everyone is distracted, Taehyung smiles to Jungkook- encouraging. The younger smiles, a light pink tinting his cheeks. Taehyung wants to pinch them.  

Taehyung finishes his breakfast first and opts for laying his head on the table and closing his eyes, content with a full stomach. He hears Jimin and Hoseok talking about some gossip in the Gryffindor house, and he smiles when Jimin includes him in a bit of conversation. He can imagine Jungkook’s shy bunny smile as Jimin asks him what his favourite quidditch team is.

A small tap on his shoulder. “Hyung.” Another tap, “Hyung, are you okay?”

Taehyung opens his eyes to see wide brown ones staring right back, concerned.

“Huh?” Taehyung starts, sitting up. “I’m okay?”

“I just thought- you were laid down and uh-“ Jungkook starts, cheeks going pink with embarrassment. Taehyung’s heart swells, Jungkook was concerned for him. “I know your head is poorly,”

“So sweet,” Taehyung gushes, pulling a spluttering Jungkook into a side hug. He points an accusing finger at his two friends across the table. “You two don’t care about me!”

Both Jimin and Hoseok roll their eyes and Jungkook smiles shyly when Taehyung winks at him. A Gryffindor walks past where they’re sat and pauses, glaring at Jungkook for a moment. The youngest looks down at his lap, ashamed. Taehyung huffs impatiently and the offending student moves past them wordlessly.

“Want to come to the library? We’re going to do our homework,” Taehyung asks Jungkook, and the younger nods timidly.

“I’m not coming,” Hoseok starts, standing up and stretching. “I’m going to bed for another hour, was up too late last night. See you all later!”

Jimin and Taehyung shout their goodbyes, and Jungkook shyly waves. Hoseok smiles brightly before making his departure, nearly tripping over a first year on his way out.

The trio decide to go back to their dorms to get their homework and then meet at the library entrance. But, as soon as Jimin is out of sight, Taehyung grabs a hold of Jungkook’s hand and starts to walk towards the Hufflepuff dormitory.

Before Jungkook can voice his confusion, Taehyung turns around to talk to him, “Jiminnie takes ages to come, we may as well go together we have lots of time to spare,”

Entering the Hufflepuff common room is a warm feeling. As soon as he steps in, Jungkook is welcomed with the colour yellow. Yellow walls, yellow sofa, it’s a nice mix with the brown furniture. The common room is empty apart from a first year who’s asleep on the sofa, Taehyung ruffles his hair with a fond smile as he walks past.

“Do you know him?” Jungkook asks as they walk to the bedrooms, Taehyung shakes his head.

“Not really, I saw him crying on the first day and gave him a hug. He smiles at me whenever he sees me, hes a cute kid,”

Jungkook isn’t surprised by how sweet Taehyung is, but it still warms his heart to hear the little things he does for people.

Jungkook is comfortable in Taehyung’s cosy dorm room. He sits on his bed contently while Taehyung gathers a few books in a bag. Instead of heading off straight away, the elder lays next to the younger. He pats the space next to him, so Jungkook lays down too.

It’s only a single bed, but it fits the both of them on. To make it a little more spacious and comfortable, Taehyung shuffles closer to Jungkook- Jungkook pretends his heart didn’t speed up when he felt Taehyung’s arm brush his.

“This is comfy,” Jungkook admits, cheeks flaring as he closes his eyes. Taehyung hums. In a moment of bravery, Jungkook shuffles a little closer to Taehyung. The elder doesn’t even hesitate before turning on his side and throwing an arm over Jungkook’s chest.

Jungkook _really_ cant ignore the pounding of his chest now. His heart is beating so hard he can feel it in his ears.

He feels so warm, so so warm inside. And there’s this indescribable feeling knot of happiness in his chest. Jungkook didn’t know he could ever feel this happy. He bites his lips to try and stop a wide smile breaking out.

It’s something he can’t even express using words, how happy he when he’s with Taehyung. He understands him so well, knows when he’s gone too far and doesn’t step any farther over the line.

“Jungkook,” Taehyung says his name softly, and the younger makes a small noise of acknowledgement, “It isn’t fair that people don’t give you a chance. It’s their loss, I think you’re wonderful,”

Taehyung makes Jungkook feel human. Everyone he’s ever met at school has made him feel like an outcast, like an alien, like he should be anywhere but there. But Taehyung has welcomed him into his life with open arms. He isnt ashamed or scared of Jungkook, even though the younger knows he’s aware of his family background. Taehyung even went as far as to introduce him to his friends.

Jungkook has never felt so secure in his life.

“Thank you for giving me a chance,” Jungkook says quietly, and he squeezes his eyes shut so no tears escape because he well and truly is grateful for Taehyung. The older, sensing his emotions, gives him a comforting rub on the chest.

After another couple minutes of silence, Taehyung sits up, looking down at Jungkook fondly. “Come on, lets get a jig on or Jimin will slice us up,”

Taehyung doesn’t really like the slytherin dorms. He especially doesn’t like Jungkook’s dorm room. He remembers Yoongi telling him that they had moved their beds away from Jungkook, but seeing it in person makes his blood boil. Jungkook feels awkward and gather’s his things quickly.

Jungkook is surprised (but Taehyung isn’t) when they arrive at the library and Jimin isn’t there yet. Taehyung leads Jungkook to the table hidden away in the corner of the room, Jungkook’s favourite.

Jimin is taking his time, so they start their homework. Jungkook starts with the subject he struggles endlessly with- defence against the dark arts. When his quill only hovers above the parchment, he can feel eyes on him.

“So, what the question is basically saying is-“ And with no judgement, no snarky comments, Taehyung helps him. He explains the question and they work through the answer together.

Jungkook does feel a little bad, because he’s so closed in and timid around Taehyung. But the elder still showers him with love. Taehyung surely can’t tell how much Jungkook does appreciate everything.

Jungkook promises, that from this day on, he’s going to be more open with Taehyung. And show him what he means to him.

Because when the elder flashes him a boxy smile, Jungkook knows he can’t ever be without it- without him


	7. Chapter 7

“Why did I see you and Jimin sat with Jeon Jungkook yesterday?” Namjoon asks inquisitively, one eyebrow raised at Taehyung. Jimin and Hoseok, who are sat beside Taehyung, sour.

“He isn’t a bad kid,” Hoseok starts immediately “I really had my doubts. But when he sat with us yesterday he was so soft and- I don’t know what it was. But I know that kid isn’t a threat,”

Namjoon looks at Hoseok confused. Before Taehyung or Jimin can interject, Namjoon speaks up again- “Well he may not look like trouble, but you never know.”  

Taehyung sighs, he knows there isnt any point in arguing. He’s glad that Hoseok and Jimin opened up to Jungkook, and he kinda expected Namjoon to be more sceptical. He’s a pureblood, and both of his parents work in criminal conviction in the ministry. He knows everything about the Jeons.

 

“You alright?” The gruff voice behind Jungkook makes him jump a little, and he cowers for a moment. When he dares to look behind him he sees Min Yoongi standing there, someone he hasn’t seen since he met him.

“Oh, y-yeah I’m fine. I haven’t seen you in a while,” Jungkook says awkwardly, keeping his eyes rooted to the floor as Yoongi walks beside him.

“Been busy.” Yoongi shrugs, “It’s Sunday so I’m giving myself a day off,”

Yoongi doesn’t make any more conversation as they walk down to the great hall, and Jungkook isn’t the type so he doesn’t either. They walk into the hall together, and when Jungkook sets off towards the Slytherin table, Yoongi grabs his arm.

“Come on,”

And so Jungkook follows him to the Hufflepuff table, keeping his eyes downcast as peoples’ gazes follow him. When he does look up, he sees in the distance Taehyung, Jimin, and Hoseok sat together. They’re accompanied by someone vaguely familiar- a Ravenclaw Jungkook had tried to walk past a while ago, that was the first time he ever laid eyes on Taehyung.

“Min Yoongi! Who thought we’d see you here,” Hoseok taunts, and Yoongi just rolls his eyes and sits down. Jungkook wordlessly sits in between him and Taehyung.

“This is Namjoon,” Taehyung introduces, motioning to the person sitting directly opposite Jungkook. “Namjoon, this is Jungkook,”

“I know, barely pleased about it.” His voice is cold and mean, and Jungkook looks down immediately, eyes staring at the plate in his place. He feels Taehyung beside him tense up. He dares to look at him, and he looks positively fuming.

“Tae,” Jungkook gets his attention quietly, as the older is about to open his mouth and snap at Namjoon. He mouths the next word, “Don’t”.

Taehyung doesn’t start beef with Namjoon at the table, at Jungkook’s request. He instead tries to make Jungkook feel as comfortable as possible- because he can’t help thinking that it’s his fault that Jungkook feels unwelcome.

A warm hand grabbing his under the table alarms him at first, but when the hand interlocks with his he calms down a little and glances to the side where the hand came from to see Taehyung sending him an apologetic smile. Jungkook squeezes his hand.

He doesn’t eat much breakfast, he feels a little sick. He can feel stares all over his back- he can hear them enquiring why he’s sat at the Hufflepuff table. He can also feel the glare of the male sat opposite. Jungkook doesn’t blame Taehyung, how could he? Nothing is Taehyung’s fault, Jungkook knows barely any people like him.

There’s a long list of people who hate him. Why should it be a shock that another person is confirmed to be on that list?

It isn’t a shock really, but it still sends his heart down to his stomach.

“You should eat more,” Taehyung comments once he notices Jungkook give up after half a slice of toast.

“Not hungry,” Jungkook says simply, sending the older a weak smile.

Jimin and Hoseok share a look, you can tell from a mile off how uncomfortable Jungkook feels in that moment. Taehyung glares at Namjoon, the older ignores him.

“So,” Yoongi starts, biting a piece of toast and continuing to talk while he eats, “Who’s going home for Halloween? Shit tons of people are for some quidditch game. I’m not, too much fuss to get to my parent’s house to only be there for a week.”

“I’m staying here,” Namjoon says straight away, “My parents are on a business trip until halfway through the week so it’d be pointless going home,”

As soon as Namjoon speaks, Jungkook flinches. Taehyung notices straight away, and he notices all of the eyes falling on the younger boy- who has his eyes fixed to the table. It’s almost like he was expecting Namjoon’s words to be against him, or he was going to do something to him.

Taehyung squeezes Jungkook’s hand, and the younger squeezes back weakly.

“Me and Hoseok are staying, perfect time to get some dancing done.” Jimin smiles, mixing his cereal with his spoon absentmindedly.

“I don’t know- I miss my parents but I want to stay here with everyone,”  Taehyung pouts, sighing. “What about you Jungkookie?”

“Uh,” Jungkook pauses, looking up at Taehyung and blinking innocently. “I- I think I’ll stay. I don’t want my parents to fuss picking me up and moving. L-Like hyung says, it’s just a week,”

Namjoon looks up, and he and Jungkook make eye contact. It’s weird to see Namjoon this serious. Because Taehyung has always seen him as a loveable tall bear. He’s clumsy and caring and ruffles Taehyung’s hair sometimes. But now, he seems cold and calculating. Taehyung knows he’s just being careful, but it’s hurting Jungkook.

“Aren’t your parents in Azkaban?” The snarky comment from a hufflepuff sat near is enough for Jungkook to feel like throwing up on the spot. His hand lets go of Taehyung’s immediately and he stands up.

“S-sorry , so sorry. I shouldn’t be here- sorry, sorry for disturbing,” He rushes out, words barely coherent. As soon as he speaks, he’s off straight afterwards, turning fast and moving towards the door.

Taehyung doesn’t hesitate for a moment before rushing off behind him, almost tripping over his robes in the haste.

Yoongi, known as a mysterious and somewhat scary person in the school, turns to the offender and gives them a dark look. The person cowers and Yoongi speaks- “There was no fucking need for that. Leave the kid alone he’s done nothing wrong,”

He turns to Namjoon then, a silent shove telling him that the message was for him too.

 

“Jungkook, Jungkook open up,” Taehyung says breathlessly, knocking on the toilet stall. “Jungkook it’s okay,”

A broken sob.

“Ignore them, Kook,” Taehyung says softly, leaning his head on the stall door.

 “Jungkook-“ Taehyung starts, about to try again to convince him to open the door. He’s interrupted by a muffled sob, full of pain. The sound is loud enough to echo around the bathroom.

“They’re good people Taehyung,” Jungkook says through sobs, “I love my parents- they’re not bad, they couldn’t be bad if they tried,”

“I know baby,” The pet name falls from Taehyung’s mouth without much thought, “It isn’t fair, I don’t think like that, and neither does Jimin or Hoseok or Yoongi,”

“Namjoon does,” Jungkook chokes out, “I saw how he looked at me, I just want to apologise to him- but I don’t even know what for,”

“You don’t owe anyone anything.” Taehyung says straight away, “You’ve done nothing wrong,”

That seems to be the breaking point for Jungkook, because he lets out a loud sob before opening the stall door. It swings open for Taehyung to see Jungkook looking so small, eyes red and still streaming tears. His pink lips trembling and his sleeves over his hands.

It only Taehyung opening his arms for Jungkook to throw himself into them, crying hard into Taehyung’s shoulder. Taehyung, instinctively, uses one hand to card through Jungkook’s hair.

“Why do I keep crying on you?” Jungkook says, sounding fed up. Taehyung sighs, he knows why. It’s because Jungkook has dealt with bad things for too long, and he’s got someone to be there for him now.

-

“Hi,” Jimin greets, smile bright as he catches Jungkook and Taehyung coming out of the bathroom together. Jungkook subconsciously puts his hand up to his face, in order to try and hide his red and puffy eyes.

It’s too late though, because everyone has already seen.

Yes, everyone. Jungkook hadn’t noticed at first, but everyone he had sat at breakfast with was stood right there in front of him (including Namjoon, who tried to look anywhere but at Jungkook).

Jungkook does get a proper look at everyone, looking at them all with scared eyes. Hoseok catches his gaze and smiles at him. When he looks at Namjoon, the elder meets his gaze- Jungkook looks away as quick as he can.

“Hey, you wanna do some dancing?” Hoseok asks, trying to lift the mood. Jungkook looks up at him and timidly nods, sending him a small smile.

 

 _This must be the room of requirement._ Jungkook thinks as they head through a door into a large space- complete with a mirrored wall and some sort of black box in the corner. He’s heard of the room of requirement before, he had read up loads on Hogwarts before his first year.

“Is this the room of requirement?” Jungkook asks as he follows Hoseok to end of the room, Hoseok turns around and shrugs.

“Never heard of it,” He says, taking off his shoes.

Jungkook blinks, confused. “Oh, I- it’s a room that changes based on what is needed for,”

Before Hoseok can react, a loud scream resonates from the corridor into the room. Hoseok and Jungkook both pull out their wands instinctively (albeit: Jungkook much more timid about it). They don’t have the chance to check it out, because the issue becomes clear when Taehyung runs into the room, still screaming.

Behind him, Park Jimin, collapsing on the floor with how much he’s laughing. To complete the scene, there’s a very fed up Namjoon stood behind them. When the youngsters don’t move, Namjoon pushes past the both of them to sit on a beanbag in the corner of the room.

“What happened?” Jungkook asks quietly, Taehyung looks at him in horror.

“JIMIN, I HATE YOU!” He suddenly screams, scrambling over to Jungkook. When he’s stood beside them, he intertwines their hands. Jungkook ignores the hard beating of his heart. “He picked up a spider and threw it at me,”

Hoseok sighs, but doesn’t reprimand either of them as he moves towards the black box in the corner. He passes Jungkook some sweatpants and a white top. He then gets out some more sweatpants and a yellow top for himself.

Hoseok nods over to a screen in the corner of the room. “You can get changed behind there,”

The clothes are a little big, but they’re comfortable. When he emerges from the screen, he sees both Hoseok and Jimin sat stretching, also changed into looser clothes instead of being in their stiff school uniform. Namjoon stares at Jungkook calculatingly as he walks over to the others, but Taehyung gives him the opposite look.

Taehyung smiles at him widely and sends him a thumbs up as he slumps over a beanbag, book in hand. He has some circle-lensed glasses perched on his nose. Jungkook thinks they’re cute.

“I didn’t know you could read,” Yoongi jokes as he enters the room, smiling at Jungkook as he walks over to them. He ruffles Jimin’s hair as he walks past and goes to slump next to Taehyung.

“I can read!” Taehyung argues, whining.

Taehyung may act dumb sometimes, immature. But he is smart, really smart. He excels in all of his subjects and is almost top in their year for grades. His intelligence isn’t seen though, as he takes pleasure in the smaller things in life. He doesn’t bother trying to make himself look smart, he just takes life as it is and tries to enjoy every moment.

Hoseok teaches Jungkook how to stretch properly, then Jimin goes to another black- machine thing in the corner. When he flips a switch on it, music starts to play. It’s nothing Jungkook’s ever heard before, but its nice to listen to- upbeat and catchy.

Jungkook concludes that he loves dancing. Hoseok and Jimin start to teach him choreo for a song, and it comes easy to him. It even results in some cheering from Taehyung (then scolding from Yoongi for being too loud when he’s trying to relax).

For the first time in a while, he feels carefree. He feels safe and happy and he’s having fun, he even manages to ignore Namjoon’s tense presence.

2 hours that feels like half an hour passes, and suddenly Hoseok stops the music. He declares that they should have a break. Jungkook sits beside Taehyung, smiling. The elder holds a water bottle out invitingly, Jungkook thanks him before he has a drink.

“I’m excited for halloween now, we’re all staying here,” Jimin smiles, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “Barely anyone will be here so we’ll have free roam!”

That relaxes Jungkook a bit, there wont be as many people here to bully him. And he’ll have his new friends by his side.

A hand sneaks around his waist, and he looks to the side to see Taehyung smiling at him. He relaxes into the touch. He shuffles back a little, until his back is leaning against Taehyung’s chest fully. He exhales, tired.

The peaceful atmosphere is broken by the sound of the door slamming open, the hard wood hitting the stone wall. It resonates throughout the room, and it startles the youngest of the group. Jungkook immediately separates himself from Taehyung, moving to the far left and looking to the area of the door with wide eyes.

“Sorry,” A light voice charms, and from the doorframe emerges someone clad in yellow and black robes, broad shoulders covered by the cloak. The person flips brown hair out of his eyes subconsciously as he adjusts his bag on his shoulder.

“Ah, you surprised us,” Jimin whines, sitting comfortably as he shakes his head.

Jungkook settles, worries at ease. This must be another one of their friends. He looks down at his lap and fiddles with his shoelaces, unfamiliar with the new person in his room. A slight worry building up that this person will be like Namjoon, and won’t like him.

The room is silent, and Jungkook starts to feel tense, so he looks up sheepishly.

The Hufflepuff boy is staring at him, eyes narrowed. When Jungkook smiles at him nervously, the other boy inhales sharply, hand flying to his chest. Jungkook looks away fast, scared he’s done something wrong.

“Oh my god,” The elder speaks, taking a deep breath. “You’re so fucking cute,”

Jungkook looks up in confusion, and the rest of the group give a collective sigh.

“I’m Kim Seokjin, and you are?” He asks, sitting down beside Taehyung, giving the youngest a wide smile. When the other doesn’t respond, still a little confused and shocked, Seokjin laughs. “I’m very handsome aren’t I? I know it can be intimidating,”

“Just shut up,” Yoongi groans, throwing a water bottle at his hyung.

“I’m-“ Jungkook starts, anxiety heavy in his chest. He never likes telling people who he is, it changes people’s outlook on him and can mean that he gets hurt. “I’m Jungkook Jeon,”

There’s a beat of silence, and a look of consideration flies across Seokjin’s face. But just a moment later, the elder is smiling again.

“Nice to meet you.” He holds out a hand, and Jungkook takes it shyly, small smile appearing on his face. “You’re a cutie,”

Jungkook blushes, ducking his head. Namjoon scoffs at the exchange, rolling his eyes. They all ignore him (well, Jungkook tries to- he just turns a darker shade of pink).

“It’s lunchtime!” Hoseok suddenly screeches, and everyone seems to spring into action. The dancers quickly get changed while the others clean up the bit of mess that had been made.

They all go to sit at the Hufflepuff table in the great hall. They sit in ease, smiling at the surrounding hufflepuffs as they’re welcomed. All but Jungkook. He shoots off one nervous smile, but when it isn’t returned he looks down, setting his mouth in a straight line. He sits between Yoongi and Taehyung, the two he feels closest too. The eldest, Seokjin, sits across from him.

He smiles at Jungkook, reassuringly. Jungkook only sends a small smile back, too scared to be looking up fully. Namjoon sits next to Seokjin, which makes Jungkook feel even more nervous.

“So, Jungkook,” Seokjin starts, picking up a piece of chicken, “How about we have a nice conversation to lighten up those cute doe eyes?”

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

“Do you think pigeons have feelings, for real,” Taehyung muses, rubbing the end of the quill against his cheek, deep in thought. “I mean, they have to. Right?”

Jungkook looks up at the elder, quill suspended on the page. He can’t say it’s something he’s thought about before. “Hyung, why does it matter?”

Taehyung pouts and sits back in his chair, leaning his head against the bookshelf. Jungkook winces when he sees a book move slightly, he hopes no one is stood under it at the other side. Taehyung must think the same thing because he sits forward again, laying his head on the table.

“This is so boring,” Taehyung sighs, closing his eyes.

It’s the last day of term, they’re off for a week. They were both given a lot of homework to do during the Halloween break, so they decided (together) that they would complete all the homework before the break had even begun, to give them  more free time.

“Think of all the free time, hyung,” Jungkook says, leaning forward. Taehyung ignores him, not even bothering to open his eyes. “I’ll hold your hand if you do some work, we only have a bit to go,”

That convinces the elder, who sits beside Jungkook straight away, taking his hand in his. He uses his spare hand to grab at his parchment and quill, and continues to write the rest of his essay. Jungkook smiles, wide, and continues his work.

They hold hands quite a bit, but usually in secret. They do it in secret to stop the stares they get, people looking at them like they’re crazy. Under the table when they’re eating, in the corner of the library while they work, when they sit together outside to watch the stars. They’re precious moments, that the both of them enjoy more than they’d admit.

Hogwarts is pretty much empty. Usually, only half of the school leave for Halloween. But, there is a big quidditch match happening mid-week, and lots of people want to watch it with their family. There’s only a tenth of students in school at the moment, the ones who either can’t go home or aren’t bothered about quidditch.

Taehyung and Jungkook’s group of friends are all staying. Only half of them were going to stay, but then the other half realised how fun it’d be for the school to be so empty, so they stayed too. They’re all doing work and resting until 6, then they’ve planned to all meet for dinner.

It’s half 5 now, and Jungkook and Taehyung have been in the library for 3 hours- they don’t have much work to do now, so they’re hoping they can get it all done in half an hour. Taehyung writes fast now that he has motivation, and Jungkook slows down as he nears the end of his essay, trying to think of the right points to finish it off.

They finish by quarter past 6, and they hold hands as they walk through the empty corridors to dinner. When they get to the great hall, they’re really astounded by how quiet it is. There’s not many groups of people, occupying the four tables. The only group sat at the Hufflepuff table is their friends, and they both smile as they approach.

“We finished all of our homework,” Taehyung grins, proud.

“Well done,” Namjoon says, smiling only at Taehyung.

Yes, even though they’ve been in each other’s presence for a couple of weeks now, Namjoon still dislikes and ignores Jungkook. The youngest tries not to care as he puts food onto his plate. Hoseok starts telling them all a story about how he punched a spider (effectively killing it) complete with sound effects and exaggerated actions (like his jumping up from his seat and punching the air with a shout).

It makes Jungkook happy. Listening to his friends laugh.

He had initially planned to leave for the break, but when he had given it some thought he realised it wasn’t worth the long journey for only a week. When he wrote to them, he didn’t mention that he had made friends. They have only really been friends for a month, and he doesn’t want to get his parent’s hopes up. Jungkook is terrified that they won’t be friends with him for long. He’s sure (as sad as it makes him feel) that they’ll get fed up of the stares and drop him.

 His parents seemed sad that he wasn’t coming home, but said that they understood and said that it was his choice whether they wanted him to stay or not. Jungkook had made the excuse that he wanted to get stuck into some work.

He feels bad now, he shouldn’t lie to his parents.

“Jungkook, if you think too much it makes you ugly,” Seokjin says through a mouthful of mashed potatoes, “Live life in the moment and be handsome, like hyung,”

The table erupts into laughter, especially from Seokjin- whose loud and distinctive laugh has people from even the far end of the large room looking at them. Amid the laughter, Taehyung’s hand sneaks into Jungkook’s under the table. Jungkook smiles wider.

-

“For the record,” Seokjin says, settling on the sofa and pulling a blanket around him. “I think you’re being really, really, really stupid,”

Namjoon rolls his eyes, he doesn’t see how he is in the wrong, at all. All he is doing is protecting his friends. Why is he being treat badly for doing a good thing?

Him and Seokjin are having a ‘sleepover’. Namjoon felt lonely and Seokjin felt hungry. And so, Namjoon offered the elder to stay with him in the ravenclaw dorms and he would provide cookies. Said cookies are in Seokjin’s lap.

“We can’t trust him.” Namjoon says defiantly, folding his arms like a five year old would during a tantrum. Seokjin sighs.

“Why can’t we?” Seokjin says straight away, defensive. “Why can’t we trust him?”

“His family are murderers,” Namjoon shouts, standing up from the flood of anger that takes over him. “So he will be too.”

“You’re the only one of us who thinks like that,” Seokjin spits, opening his book and effectively ending the argument. “I know why you hate his family so much. But putting Jungkook through this is unfair,”

The argument may have ended, but Namjoon’s still full of anger.

 

“This is so exciting!” Taehyung smiles, holding a glass of milk with two hands. He manoeuvres around the coffee table and takes a seat beside Jungkook. The youngest shares the blanket, draping it over Taehyung too.

“It is,” Jungkook says with a relived sigh, “The Hufflepuff dorms are so much nicer than the Slytherin ones,”

The Slytherin dorms, in the dungeons, are cold and dark. And when there’s people in, they’re unwelcoming to Jungkook. The Hufflepuff dorms, however, are warm and cozy. He feels especially cozy as he’s beside Taehyung.

When they’ve both drank their milk and eaten some cake (Jungkook was amazed how Taehyung appeared with the food and drinks, living next to the kitchen definitely has its perks), Taehyung gathers their things and suggests they go to bed. They head to the dorm that Taehyung sleeps in and Jungkook is happy to see that it’s empty, all of his roommates having left for the break.

They get changed into their pyjamas, neither of them facing eachother as they do so. Taehyung mentioned that he doesn’t mind, but Jungkook is shy and asked for him to turn around. The elder was faithful and turned away, but Jungkook can’t help but turn around a little and get a peek at the elder’s smooth and muscular back, he doesn’t let his eyes go further down and focuses on getting changed.

The both of them laid a little apart at first, shoulder to shoulder. But then Taehyung shuffles closer, then lays on his front, and soon enough he’s got a head laid on Jungkook’s chest and a leg thrown over the younger. Jungkook tries to calm his beating heart, closing his eyes.

They fall asleep like that.

_

When they arrive at breakfast the next day, they’re both smiling widely. Who wouldn’t be in a good mood after a good nights sleep?

Jungkook sits in between Jimin and Taehyung and across from Namjoon. Jin smiles at Jungkook reassuringly, and the younger sighs and smiles back. There’s always a tense atmosphere that comes with Jungkook and Namjoon being close.

Owls fly across their heads as mail arrives. Jungkook loads some toast onto his plate, not paying attention. Whenever he and his parents talk, it’s late at night. Jungkook will go up to the owlery to send a letter, and his parents will reply the following evening- again, Jungkook will go up to the owlery to get the letter. He doesn’t like getting letters in a morning, in front of everyone.

So many people hate his parents, he has a bad feeling that people would want to read his mail or ridicule him. He doesn’t want the attention.

And so, when a letter drops in front of him, he’s surprised. Not one of his other friends gets a letter, so they all watch him expectantly. Jungkook just stares at it for a moment, very confused. He puts down the piece of toast he was holding and grabs the letter, reading the front. That’s definitely his mum’s handwriting.

He opens it, still feeling everyone’s eyes on him. When he pulls out the letter, he internally sighs at the length of it. But he can’t help the smile that takes over his face when a photo drops out. Both of his parents and their cat, Ronald. Both his mum and dad are smiling, cheerful, but Ronald looks less than impressed as his father holds him up. Jungkook recognises that they’re in the kitchen.

“Who’s it from?” Jimin asks, “Who has you smiling like that?”

Jungkook’s smile falters as he looks up from the photo, to his friends. “My parents,”

Not a lot is ever said about Jungkook’s parents. Of course, his family is regarded as a bunch of bad people. Taehyung asks about his parents sometimes, when they’re in private, and Jungkook tells of all the good things. There’s only really good things to tell. But the others? Jungkook guesses they’re too awkward to ask about them. There was an incident where Namjoon suggested his parents were bad people, and Jungkook got really upset. That was the last time they spoke about Jungkook’s family.

He gets to reading the letter right away.

**_Hello, our Jungkookie!_ **

**_I would say ‘guess who!’ but its safe to assume you’ll be able to guess, isn’t that disappointing? It’s mum here, just checking in. Ronald is missing you! He keeps going to lay on your bed, its covered in ginger fur now. Don’t worry, ill make it all nice for when you come home next._ **

**_Dad can sew now. But oh god, he’s making some really weird stuff. Just yesterday I walked in to the living room to see him making his own pig cushion. When you come home, make sure to compliment it or his feelings will be hurt._ **

**_It’s sad not having you home, but we’re immensely proud of you. Do what you need to do and we’ll see you in the Christmas holidays, right? I don’t think Ronald can go much longer without you. You should take him to Hogwarts! That’d make him so happy._ **

**_Please stay safe Jungkook. Please. I’m so sorry that you have to be associated with bad things, you deserve better than the family you belong to. If any kids cause you problems, please tell McGonagall, she did a lot for me and your father and I’m sure she’d look after you._ **

**_Again, I feel so sorry for you, my Jungkook. People can be mean, don’t listen to people who are like that, okay? You are perfect, and handsome, and smart, and loved. Loved a lot._ **

**_Make sure you keep eating and drinking. Fighting!_ **

**_\- Mum xxx_ **

Jungkook lets a big sigh out at the letter. He feels really bad now for not going home. He hopes that his mum believes that he’s staying for work, and not because he’s been beaten up or something else bad.

“Bad news?” Yoongi asks, eyeing Jungkook and the letter. Jungkook shakes his head, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Jungkook coughs, “I just feel kind of weird. I think my parents think that I’m staying here because I’ve been threatened or something,”

The table seems to get quieter, the tension slightly risen.

“Why would you be th-“ Hoseok starts, but stops talking when it sinks in.

It makes them feel a little sick, the idea of Jungkook being threatened.

“Wow, is that your mum? She’s so pretty!” Taehyung comments in awe as he catches sight of the photograph on the table. He picks it up to get a better look. Everyone else seems to lean over to try and catch a look, so Taehyung turns it around so they can all see.

“She is really pretty, wow,” Jimin says quietly, “Your parents are young, younger than I thought they’d be,”

“Yeah,” Jungkook shrugs with a shy smile, “They were both 19 when they had me,”

“You look like your dad,” Hoseok comments, “But you have your mum’s smile.”

There’s a chorus of hums after that comment, as the other’s agree with him. Jungkook doesn’t think he looks much like either of them- but he and his mum do have the same ‘bunny’ teeth. 

“They look sweet,” Seokjin smiles. “And so does your cat,”

And Namjoon speaks for the first time during breakfast. “They might look sweet, but they’re murderers.”

The reaction is immediate.

 

Min Yoongi slaps him, hard. The sound resonates through the hall and it goes that bit quieter as people look their way. Namjoon sits there, dumbfounded, and with a hand over his quickly reddening cheek.

“Leave the fucking kid and his family alone,” He growls, pointing straight in the younger’s face.

Jungkook’s thankful for Yoongi, he really is. But he isn’t sure how he feels about him slapping Namjoon. He doesn’t want to be the one to tear apart this closely knitted friendship group. Namjoon does have small reason for thinking what he does, Jungkook just wishes that he would listen to him.

Because he loves his parents more than anyone and it hurts him so much that they’re given this treatment.

“Am I not allowed an opinion?” Namjoon whispers angrily, fire in his eyes.

But, he’s beyond angry at Namjoon. He doesn’t know how much slandering he can allow. His parents are good people. They’re the best people he knows.

“Namjoon,” Jungkook hates how desperate his voice sounds, “What have I done wrong?”

Jungkook opens the letter again, turning it around so the elder can read it. “Do those sound like the words of bad people?” He’s nearly spitting now as he talks, anger overcoming him. “My dad literally sews pigs and my mum makes fun of him, look at me and say that they’re bad people,”

Namjoon takes a moment to read it, but his expression doesn’t change. He looks Jungkook dead in the eye, and it makes the younger so uncomfortable. Because Namjoon is so cold to him, even when he’s shown more than sufficient evidence that his parents aren’t bad people, that he isn’t a bad person. He knows he should be used to it, but after being greeted with so much love from the others, it hurts him even more.

“They’re murderers,” Namjoon says, eye contact remaining between him and Jungkook. The younger shivers with how cold it is. “And I think you are too,”


End file.
